SAS Application Course Overview

Semester course materials and practice exercises

1 Course Structure

This section contains course materials from the SAS Application course, organized by topics and weeks.

2 How to Use These Materials

1. Read the lesson content - Each .qmd file contains theoretical explanations
2. Practice with notebooks - Each .ipynb file provides hands-on exercises
3. Review solutions - Solution notebooks are provided for self-check

3 Course Modules

3.1 Module 1: Data Reading and Basic Operations

• Reading data from various sources (CSV, Excel, database)
• Basic data exploration with PROC PRINT, CONTENTS, FREQ
• Data subsetting and filtering

3.2 Module 2: Data Manipulation

• Creating new variables
• Conditional logic (IF-THEN-ELSE)
• DATA step processing
• Arrays and DO loops

3.3 Module 3: Combining Datasets

• Vertical concatenation (SET, APPEND)
• Horizontal merging (MERGE by key)
• SQL joins (INNER, LEFT, FULL, RIGHT)

3.4 Module 4: Data Transformation

• Transposing data (PROC TRANSPOSE)
• Reshaping wide to long and vice versa
• Date and time handling

3.5 Module 5: Summary Statistics and Reports

• Descriptive statistics (PROC MEANS, SUMMARY, UNIVARIATE)
• Frequency tables (PROC FREQ)
• Creating formatted reports (PROC REPORT, PRINT)

3.6 Module 6: Basic Graphs and Visualization

• PROC SGPLOT basics
• Bar charts, histograms, scatter plots
• Customizing plots

3.7 Module 7: Macros Fundamentals

• Macro variables
• Macro programs
• Common use cases

3.8 Module 8: Advanced Topics

• Efficient programming techniques
• Error handling and debugging
• Performance optimization

4 File Organization

Files are organized with prefixes for easy ordering: - 01-, 02-, etc. for week/module numbers - -lesson.qmd for reading materials - -practice.ipynb for practice exercises - -solution.ipynb for exercise solutions

Example structure:

fundamentals/
├── 00-setup-sas-jupyter.qmd
├── 01-course-overview.qmd
├── 02-data-reading-lesson.qmd
├── 02-data-reading-practice.ipynb
├── 02-data-reading-solution.ipynb
├── 03-data-manipulation-lesson.qmd
├── 03-data-manipulation-practice.ipynb
└── ...

5 Getting Started

1. Setup: Follow SAS Jupyter Setup Guide
2. Create notebooks: Use VS Code or Jupyter to create new .ipynb files
3. Select SAS kernel: Choose “SAS” as the kernel when creating notebooks
4. Start coding: Write SAS code in notebook cells and execute

6 Tips for Learning

• Type, don’t copy: Typing code helps retention
• Experiment: Modify examples to see what happens
• Use the log: Always check the SAS log for warnings/errors
• Comment your code: Explain your logic for future reference
• Build a snippet library: Save useful patterns

7 Sample Data

Common practice datasets: - sashelp.class - Student data - sashelp.cars - Automobile data - sashelp.heart - Medical data - Custom datasets provided in course materials

8 Resources

• SAS Documentation
• SAS Communities
• Course slides and recordings (if available)
• Office hours schedule

9 Assignments and Grading

• Weekly practice exercises (formative, not graded)
• Mid-term project (30%)
• Final project (40%)
• Participation and quizzes (30%)

Check with your instructor for specific deadlines and requirements.