Date: Fri, 2 Jun 2006 00:51:59 -0400
Reply-To: Chang Chung <chang_y_chung@HOTMAIL.COM>
Sender: "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From: Chang Chung <chang_y_chung@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Do loop question - more general
On Thu, 1 Jun 2006 18:59:31 -0400, Howard E. Alper <halper@HEALTH.NYC.GOV>
wrote:
>Hi,
>
> Seeing the varied answers to the "Do Loop Question" thread, I see a
level
>of programming beyond mine, at least regarding general data manipulation,
>and I want to learn more of the infinite world of SAS. One way is,
>obviously, to monitor this list, ask my own questions, etc. Can anyone
>recommend other materials (SAS books, SAS courses (I've already taken the
>level I, II, and III SAS programming classes), etc) that might augment my
>knowledge?
Hi, Howard,
I am way under-qualified to answer your question, but I have some time to
kill... so here is my humble opinion ...
Different people have different ways of learning. Believe it or not, some
people learn by reading the manuals. Some learn by observing what others
do. Still some others prefer jumping into the water and start swimming
right away.
If you are the first type, then bite-the-bullet and read sas manuals. It
pays to read them. Not many people read the "Base SAS > SAS Language
Reference: Concepts" section of the online doc, but it is worth reading at
least once while you are learning sas.
SAS OnlineDoc for 9.1.3 is at
http://support.sas.com/onlinedoc/913/docMainpage.jsp
Even though the typesetting is really horrible, Rick Aster's
book, "Professional SAS Programming Shortcuts" has a huge amount of sas
code. Rick shows sas being utilized in many, many different ways. It does
not seem to be very popular now, nor it is for beginners. But I find it is
worth the price many more times. You can find the content of this book at
http://www.globalstatements.com/shortcuts/contents.html
Sas-l has a relatively high signal to noise ratio, but if you want to
extract the best in a more organized way, seek sas conference papers
written by sas-l hall of famer(s). I cannot even name specific papers and
authors, since there are so many good ones. Lex Jansen provides handy
search page that has links to NESUG, PharmaSUG, PhUSE, SeUGI and SUGI
papers. The paper search page is at
http://www.lexjansen.com/sugi/. Toby once told me that he has several
large binders, full of sas conference papers. I bet that he has both
Ian's "sas supervisor" and Paul's "magnificent do" papers in them.
Some sas users/programmers maintain websites of their own and some of the
sas code they showcase are just amazing. There are so many wonderful
sites, but don't miss Richard DeVenezia's at http://devenezia.com/
If you want/need some interesting sas challenges, then Bob Virgile's "An
Array of Challenges" ISBN: 1-55544-806-2 is an old classic that covers a
lot of data step statements and descriptive stat proc's. You can find some
more information about this and other books at SAS Publishing site:
http://www.sas.com/apps/pubscat/bookdetails.jsp?catid=1&pc=55625
Time and again I feel that a computer language is indeed a language: use
it or lose it. If you work with other sas users/programmers, the best way
to learn sas is to share your source code with others. It is amazing how
much you can learn by reviewing others' code and how much you can improve
your code by letting it reviewed by others. Mastering the correct syntax
and grammar of a language is not the same as speaking it. You really
program when your code starts clearly communicating your ideas and your
intentions (and possibly your emotions) to the computer and to your fellow
human beings as well.
Cheers,
Chang
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