Automating Routine Email Reports in SAS: A Step-by-Step Guide

Introduction

In today’s fast-paced business environment, efficiency and automation are key to maintaining productivity. Routine reports are essential, but manually generating and distributing them can be time-consuming and prone to errors. Fortunately, SAS provides powerful tools to automate these tasks, allowing you to generate reports and automatically send them via email. This ensures stakeholders receive the information they need in a timely and consistent manner.

In this article, we'll walk through a practical example of how to automate the generation of a report and send it via email using SAS. We will cover everything from generating the report to configuring the email, making this a comprehensive guide that you can easily adapt to your own reporting needs.

Step 1: Generate the Report

The first step in our automation process is to generate the report that will be sent via email. In this example, we'll create a PDF report that summarizes car statistics from the built-in SAS dataset sashelp.cars. The Output Delivery System (ODS) in SAS allows us to output the report in a variety of formats; in this case, we'll use PDF.

/* Set the path where the report will be saved */
%let output_path = C:\Reports;

/* Generate the PDF report */
ods pdf file="&output_path./Monthly_Report.pdf" style=journal;
proc means data=sashelp.cars;
   var horsepower mpg_city mpg_highway;
   class type;
   title "Monthly Car Statistics Report";
run;
ods pdf close;

In this code:

• We specify the output path where the report will be saved using the macro variable output_path.
• We use the ODS PDF statement to create a PDF file named Monthly_Report.pdf in the specified path.
• The PROC MEANS procedure generates summary statistics for horsepower, city miles per gallon (mpg_city), and highway miles per gallon (mpg_highway), grouped by the type of car.

Step 2: Send the Report via Email

Once the report is generated, the next step is to automate the process of sending it via email. SAS provides the FILENAME statement to create an email fileref, which we can then use to send the report as an attachment.

/* Configure the email settings */
filename mymail email
   to='recipient@example.com'
   subject="Monthly Car Statistics Report"
   attach="&output_path./Monthly_Report.pdf";

/* Send the email with the attached report */
data _null_;
   file mymail;
   put "Dear Team,";
   put "Please find attached the Monthly Car Statistics Report.";
   put "Best regards,";
   put "SAS Automation Team";
run;

/* Clear the email fileref */
filename mymail clear;

In this code:

• The filename mymail email statement configures the email settings. You specify the recipient’s email address in the to= option, the subject of the email in the subject= option, and the path to the attached report in the attach= option.
• The data _null_; step is used to write the body of the email. The file mymail; statement indicates that the content of the put statements should be sent to the email.
• Finally, the filename mymail clear; statement clears the email fileref, releasing any resources it was using.

Conclusion

By following these steps, you can automate the generation and distribution of routine reports in SAS, saving time and reducing the potential for errors. This example illustrates how simple it can be to set up automated email reports, making it easier to ensure that your team receives the necessary data on time, every time.

This approach is highly adaptable and can be expanded to include more complex reports, multiple attachments, or even scheduled automation using job schedulers like CRON (on Linux systems) or Task Scheduler (on Windows). With SAS, you have the tools to streamline your reporting process, allowing you to focus on more critical tasks.

Additional Tips

• Dynamic Email Content: You can further enhance this automation by making the email content dynamic, such as including the report date or summary statistics directly in the email body.
• Multiple Recipients: If you need to send the report to multiple recipients, you can separate the email addresses with a comma in the to= option.
• Email from a Different Address: If your SAS environment supports it, you can specify a different sender email address using the from= option in the filename statement.

Automating routine tasks like report generation and distribution not only saves time but also ensures consistency and accuracy in your reporting. By leveraging the capabilities of SAS, you can create a seamless workflow that keeps your team informed and up to date with minimal manual intervention.