Get Ready for the Big Day

Assessing SAS® Skill Level during the Interviewing Process

Interviewing and assessing SAS Programmers

SAS Technical Interview Questions

SAS® Interview or “How to Get a Second Date

Tips for Effectively Interviewing SAS Programming Candidates

HIRE Power in the Pharmaceutical

What’s a “Senior” SAS® Position?

Hiring the Best SAS Programmers


Quizzes and Solutions (source: http://www2.umdnj.edu)
by Ron Cody

http://www2.umdnj.edu/codyweb/biocomputing/quizzes.html


SAS Proficiency Test by Judy Loren

Evaluating Sample Code for an Interview



Assessing SAS Skill Level during the Interviewing Process

You can get the SAS Code back even If you haven’t saved it

If you happen to be one of the unlucky programmers who lost the SAS code … because you didn’t save it. There is solution for that…. SAS System automatically takes the backup of the SAS code for every 10 minutes (default);

Just look in the following location:

C:\Documents and Settings\Programmer Name\Application Data\SAS\EnhancedEditor\

Note: Replace “Programmer Name” with your login user id of the System you are using;
If you go the specified location above, you will see a copy of the unsaved version of the SAS code.
It will be quick if you search files with the extension name ‘.$AS’ (extension for auto-saved SAS codes)


If you want, you can also change the 10-minute time interval for Auto save…. Go to…


Tools ► Options ► Preferences ►Edit.


In the preferences dialog box, make sure to the change the time under Autosave every …. And click on OK ...

SAS OnlineTutor®: Advanced SAS® | StudySAS Blog

SAS OnlineTutor®: Advanced SAS®

tod8. and picture formats: How Can I Find a Time Format that Does Not Remove the Leading Zero e.g. Time5

How Can I Find a Time Format that Does Not Remove the Leading Zero e.g. Time5

(output printed as 09:36 instead of 9:36)?

I have found an intersting solution to this problem in http://www.sas.com/; direct link

(Suggested by Stephen Hoar, Lloyds TSB)

There is currently no time format that puts leading zeros automatically in time values. But there are a number of ways of achieving this, below are some examples.

Example 1:
Create your own custom format using the following syntax. Then format your data values using the user defined format.


proc format ;
picture military other = '%0H:%0M:%0S' (datatype=time) ;
run ;

data test;
x= '9:36't ;
format x military8. ;
put x=;
run ;

x=09:36:00


Example 2:

You can also use the TODw.d format which does write leading zeros, but the original value must be a SAS datetime value. To convert your time values to datetime values use the DHMS function. In the DHMS function insert the value: 0 date, 0 hours, 0 minutes, and then the SAS time value as the number of seconds.

Then format the new variable with the TODw.d format and you will have the correct time, including the leading zeros.


data test;
x='9:36't;
y=dhms(0,0,0,x);
format y tod8.;
put y=;
run;

y=09:36:00

Have a look at the following Technical Support website for further examples of using Date & Time functions and formats: http://support.sas.com/techsup/sample/functions.html

SAS Arrays and DO-LOOPS

SAS Do Array

Three SAS Programs that use Arrays

SAS Macros that Convert a Directory of Transport Files

There is a set of SAS macros, converts a directory of transport files to a directory of SAS data sets and format catalogs (and vice versa). To see how to invoke the macros, look at the test following the last macro. The macros make the assumption that transport files created from data sets have the extension .xpt, and transport files created from format catalogs have the extension .xpf.

%expfmts : This macro will convert an existing format catalog into a data set in transport format.

%expdset: This macro will convert an existing SAS data set into a transport file.

%impfmts: This macro will convert a transport CNTLOUT data set into a native format catalog.

%impdset: This macro will convert a transport data set into a native SAS data set.

%getnames: This macro will create a SAS data set consisting of a variable called FILENAME. There will be one observation for each file in the specified directory with the specified extension.

Direct link: http://www.sas.com/govedu/fda/macro.html

SAS Display Manager Commands

In my view, Display Manager commands didn’t get much attention of SAS programmers as they should be. It may be because...

1) SAS Documentation has very little information about how to use this facility.
2) Even Google searches aren’t helpful enough.

Here is the list of Display Manager Commands I know…

dm"log; clear; out; clear;";*Clears Output and Log Window;
dm "vt work.dsn" ; *Opens the dataset DSN in a View table window;
dm "vt &syslast"; *Opens the dataset recently created;
dm 'next viewtable:work.dsn; end;';*Closes the VT window of DSN;
dm 'keydef f12 submit';*Assigns the submit command to the F12 key ;
*Assigns clear log and output commands to F2 Key;
dm "keydef F2 'cle log; cle output; submit'";
*applies detail view to explorer window;
dm  "next explorer; detail";

dm "next log; detail"; *Opens the Log Window;
dm "next output; detail"; *Opens the output Window;
dm "next editor; detail"; *Opens the Editor window;
dm 'next VIEWTABLE:; end;'; *Closes all opened viewtable windows;

dm 'odsresults' clear ; * Clears the Results window;
dm 'log off'; *Closes the LOG window;

dm "VT libname.dataset COLHEADING=NAMES";


VT=View Table.
COLHEADING=NAMES option displays column names as column headings instead of column labels which is default.


read more about DEXPORT and DIMPORT DM commands:
http://studysas.blogspot.com/2009/06/dexport-and-dimport-display-manager.html

dm: Display Manager
vt: View Table
keydef: Key Definition