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SAS for beginners

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How to Get Started with SAS: A Beginner’s Guide to SAS Programming

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If you’re new to data analytics or just starting with SAS (Statistical Analysis System), welcome! You’re entering a powerful world of data manipulation, analysis, and visualization used across industries from healthcare to finance. In this beginner’s guide, we’ll walk through how to get started with SAS and the basics you need to know to hit the ground running.

What is SAS?

SAS is a software suite developed by SAS Institute for advanced analytics, business intelligence, data management, and predictive analytics. It’s particularly popular in regulated industries like pharmaceuticals, banking, and insurance due to its robustness and auditability.

Why use SAS?

  • Reliable for large data sets
  • Excellent reporting and statistical capabilities
  • Strong industry support (especially in healthcare and finance)
  • Built-in procedures for complex statistical methods

How to Access SAS

There are several ways to start using SAS:

  1. SAS OnDemand for Academics (Free)
    • Ideal for students and educators.
    • Cloud-based, no installation needed.
    • Sign up at SAS OnDemand for Academics.
  2. SAS University Edition (Deprecated)
    • Previously offered a free local install; now replaced by cloud options.
  3. SAS Viya
    • Modern, cloud-native analytics platform with an intuitive UI.
  4. Enterprise-Level Installation
    • Typically provided by employers with licensing agreements.

The SAS Programming Basics

SAS programs are built around two main steps:

1. DATA Step

Used for reading, modifying, and creating data sets. The structure of a basic data step where data is manually input is listed below.

2. PROC Step

Used to analyze or report on the data.

Key SAS Concepts

  • Libraries: Collections of datasets. WORK is the temporary default library.
  • Data Sets: Tables stored in SAS libraries.
  • Variables: Columns in a dataset.
  • Observations: Rows in a dataset.
  • Procedures (PROC): Built-in tools for analysis (e.g., PROC MEANS, PROC FREQ, PROC SORT).

Hands-On: Your First SAS Program

Try this simple program to explore your first dataset. This will display the mean, min, max, and other statistics for the Score variable.

Tips for SAS Beginners

  • Use comments liberally: * This is a comment; or /* Block comment */
  • Run your code in sections to avoid re-running everything.
  • Explore SAS documentation—it’s thorough and beginner-friendly.
  • Don’t fear the log—it tells you what happened, what didn’t, and why.

What’s Next?

Once you’re comfortable with basic data steps and procedures, try exploring:

  • PROC SORT and PROC FREQ
  • Creating graphs with PROC SGPLOT
  • Using conditional logic with IF/THEN statements
  • SAS Macros for automation

Final Thoughts

SAS might seem intimidating at first, but with practice, it becomes a powerful ally in your data journey. Whether you’re analyzing survey data, creating dashboards, or building predictive models, SAS provides the tools to get the job done.

Stay tuned for more beginner-friendly tutorials and happy coding!

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How to Import a TXT File into SAS (Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners)

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If you’re working with data in SAS, chances are you’ll need to import a TXT file at some point. Whether it’s survey responses, transaction logs, or exported reports, plain text files are a common format for raw data.

This guide will show you how to import a TXT file into SAS using both the DATA step and PROC IMPORT methods – perfect for beginners who want clean, organized data inside SAS.

Before You Start: Know Your File Format

TXT files come in different shapes and sizes. The two most common formats are:

  • Delimited (e.g., tab-separated, comma-separated)
  • Fixed-width (each field has a fixed number of characters)

Check your TXT file in a text editor like Notepad or VS Code to understand its structure. That will determine which method you use.

What Is a Delimiter?

A delimiter is a character or symbol used to separate individual pieces of data in a text file—especially in plain text formats like .txt or .csv.

Think of a delimiter as the “separator” between data values. It helps programs like SAS know where one value ends and the next one begins.

Using PROC IMPORT

Let’s use data from the TXT file below as an example for this tutorial. The data has imaginary names and test scores which are separated by a space.

To import this TXT file, we could use the PROC IMPORT code below.

What This Does:

  • OUT= names your new SAS dataset
  • DATAFILE= points to your TXT file
  • DBMS=dlm tells SAS it’s a delimited file
  • DELIMITER=dlm sets space as the delimiter

Since our test data was neatly formatted with single-space delimiters, the data was successfully imported and resulted in the SAS dataset below.

What If My Data Is Delimited by Something Other Than Single Space?

No worries! SAS gives you the flexibility to import text files delimited by almost any character—not just spaces. You simply need to adjust the DELIMITER= option within your PROC IMPORT statement.

Below is a handy reference table showing common delimiters and how to specify them correctly in SAS:

DelimiterSymbolDelimiter =
Comma,‘,’
Tab(tab)’09’x
Pipe`‘|’
Semicolon;‘;’
Space‘ ‘
Custom~, ^, #'character' (e.g., '@')

Tips & Troubleshooting

  • Missing Values: Watch out for missing delimiters or short fields—they can shift your data.
  • Preview First: Use a small test file to confirm your import setup before loading huge datasets.
  • Log Warnings: Always check the SAS log for warnings or truncation issues.

If you need help or want tips on importing a CSV file into SAS, I have a how to guide on that here.

Importing a .txt file into SAS using PROC IMPORT is a powerful and efficient way to get started with data analysis. By simply specifying the correct DBMS and DELIMITER options, you can handle a wide range of file formats—from tab-delimited logs to pipe-separated system exports.

Got Questions?

If you run into issues or want help with a tricky file format, feel free to drop a comment below or reach out! I’m happy to help troubleshoot and offer tailored code examples.

Thanks for reading—and happy coding in SAS!

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How To Import a CSV File in SAS Using PROC IMPORT

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When diving into data analysis, building reports, or prepping data for modeling, one of the most common and essential tasks you may run into is to import a CSV file in SAS.

CSV files are one of the most common ways to store and share structured data. Whether you’re dealing with sales reports, survey responses, or lab results, chances are your data will come in CSV format. That’s why knowing how to import these files into SAS is a foundational skill for any data analyst, statistician, or data science student.

By using PROC IMPORT, you can quickly bring external data into your SAS environment and get straight to analysis — no manual data entry or format conversion required.

In this post, I’ll walk you through step-by-step how to import a CSV file in SAS, plus a few tips and tricks to avoid common errors.

What Each Line Means:

  • DATAFILE: Path to your CSV file.
  • OUT: Name of the SAS dataset that will be created.
  • DBMS=CSV: Specifies that the file is a CSV.
  • REPLACE: Allows overwriting the dataset if it already exists.

Tips to Import a CSV File in SAS

✅ Make sure your CSV file doesn’t have extra blank rows at the top.

✅ Keep column names short and simple (avoid spaces and special characters).

Bonus: View the Imported Dataset

Once your data is imported, you will want to validate that the data was imported as expected. This can easily be done with a PROC PRINT step like the one pictured below.

This PROC PRINT produces a snapshot of the imported dataset, Climate_Disease_Data, and the Obs=10 statement limits the PROC PRINT to shows only the first 10 rows of your dataset. The dataset pictured below shows the output.

Importing a CSV file into SAS is one of those foundational skills that will make your data analysis workflow faster and more efficient. Follow the steps above, and you will have CSV file data at your disposal in no time.

Have questions or want help troubleshooting when you import a CSV file in SAS? Drop them in the comments or reach out — happy to help!