Carpenter's Complete Guide to the SAS Macro Language, Third Edition - Softcover

Carpenter, Art

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1629592684 ISBN 13: 9781629592688

Publisher: SAS Institute, 2016

Synopsis

For SAS programmers or analysts who need to generalize their programs or improve programming efficiency, Art Carpenter thoroughly updates his highly successful second edition of Carpenter's Complete Guide to the SAS Macro Language with an extensive collection of new macro language techniques and examples.

Addressing the composition and operation of the SAS macro facility and the SAS macro language, this third edition offers nearly 400 ready-to-use macros, macro functions, and macro tools that enable you to convert SAS code to macros, define macro variables, and more! Users with a basic understanding of Base SAS who are new to the SAS macro language will find more detail, utilities, and references to additional learning opportunities; advanced macro language programmers who need help with data-driven macros and dynamic application development will find greatly expanded treatment of these topics.

This revised and enlarged edition includes the following topics:

• New and expanded introduction to the macro language
• Functions, automatic macro variables, and macro statements new to the macro language
• Expanded macro language tools that interface with the operating system
• Expanded data-driven methodologies used to build dynamic applications
• Expanded discussion of list processing, with four alternative approaches presented
• Additional file and data management examples
• Expanded discussion of CALL EXECUTE and DOSUBL
• New discussion of using the macro language on remote servers
• Expanded discussion and examples of macro quoting

Far beyond a reference manual issued from an “ivory tower,” this book is pragmatic and example-driven: Yes, you will find syntax examples; yes, the code is explained. But the focus of this book is on actual code used to solve real-world business problems. In fact, an entire appendix is dedicated to listing the nearly 70 classes of problems that are solved by programs covered in this edition. Discussion of the examples elucidates the pros and cons of the particular solution and often suggests alternative approaches. Therefore, this book provides you both a compendium of reusable and adaptable code, and opportunities for deepening your understanding and growing as a SAS programmer.

About this title

Review

"Mastering the skills in Chapter 9, 'Writing Dynamic Code, ' will certainly boost your career as a programmer. The author introduces all the necessary components of writing a dynamic program. Initially dynamic code can look esoteric, but the author has detailed complete examples including resolved values for double-ampersand macro variables and macro arrays. Being able to see what the macro variable resolves to throughout each step will help any user grasp this concept. PROC SQL is also used in Chapter 9 as a macro variable list-generating tool, which is prevalent in most of the programs I've written. Overall Chapter 9 will convey an important message to the SAS user--that your code can have more than one dimension and can adapt dynamically to the data you are using. Until now I have not seen formal documentation to such detail on dynamic programming, and the author does a successful job of presenting this topic."

About the Author

Art Carpenter, an independent consultant and statistician, has been a SAS user since 1977. His impressive list of publications includes Carpenter's Guide to Innovative SAS Techniques; Carpenter's Complete Guide to the SAS REPORT Procedure; Carpenter's Complete Guide to the SAS Macro Language, Third Edition; Annotate: Simply the Basics; his co-authored Quick Results with SAS/GRAPH Software; and two chapters in Reporting from the Field. He also has served as the general editor of Art Carpenter's SAS Software Series. As an Advanced SAS Certified Professional, Art has presented more than a hundred papers, posters, and workshops at SAS Global Forum, SAS Users Group International (SUGI) conferences, and various SAS regional conferences. Art has received several best-contributed-paper awards, and he has served in a variety of leadership roles for local, regional, national, and international users groups, including conference chair and executive board member of the SAS Global Users Group.

Edition details

• Publisher: SAS Institute
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1629592684
• ISBN 13: 9781629592688
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 3
• Number of pages: 540