Date: Wed, 31 Mar 2010 14:26:28 -0400
Reply-To: Sigurd Hermansen <HERMANS1@WESTAT.COM>
Sender: "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From: Sigurd Hermansen <HERMANS1@WESTAT.COM>
Subject: Re: The Long and Winding Road to SAS Global Forum 2010
In-Reply-To: <201003301510.o2UAksgx017791@malibu.cc.uga.edu>
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Art:
Alan has already mentioned electronic copies of reports. I've found reading of headers and blocks especially challenging.
In reading spreadsheets, extracting information from headers is challenging, but I have to give up when I find cells that a too clever by half user has split a cell to accommodate two code values instead of the required one.
Perhaps the greatest challenge entailed reading Landauer badge records of exposures to radiation. (Radiology technicians, for example, wear badges that record exposures to radiation. Machines read the badges and extract those records.) Aside from the wide variety of identifiers for persons and organizations, a few of the many fields in a very large text file had undocumented binary strings embedded in them.
S
-----Original Message-----
From: SAS(r) Discussion [mailto:SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Arthur Tabachneck
Sent: Tuesday, March 30, 2010 11:11 AM
To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: The Long and Winding Road to SAS Global Forum 2010
Even more shameless promotion and self-promotion: Spend the entire
morning, Monday (April 12th, 2010) at Coder's Corner.
I just discovered that I'll get to give two presentations during that
session, thus 5 of the 7 papers being presented have ties to SAS-L.
My previously unannounced paper, paper 382-2010 (Monday, April 12th,
11:40am-11:50am .. right between presentations by Mike and Ted Conway) is
one that evolved as a result of a Peter Flom post a couple of months ago.
"Worst, but still importable data I’ve ever seen"
What’s the worst data you’ve ever had to import? How about an Excel
spreadsheet that contains a date field with rows that represent virtually
every date format imaginable? While just the thought would make most SAS
users shudder, the author confronted just such a file the day after being
challenged, on SAS-L, to propose an example of the worst file ever.
This presentation describes two methods that allow one to almost
painlessly import such a file, one method using proc import via SAS/Access
for PC File Formats, and another using DDE.
Hope to see/meet you there,
Art
-------
On Fri, 12 Feb 2010 14:54:16 -0500, Arthur Tabachneck
<art297@NETSCAPE.NET> wrote:
>I don't have anything to add to the discussion but, since we're into
>shameless promotion and trivia:
>
>Shameless promotion: See how a SAS-L post can turn into a (I think) nice
>paper, come earlier to coder's corner (10:30 on Monday, Room 611) and
>listen to: Automagically Copying and Pasting Variable Names
>
>then, since you'll already be there, stay around for Mike's presentation.
>
>Trivia: If you don't count "y" as a vowel, there are a total of two
>presenters at this year's SGF who don't have any vowels in their last
name.
>
>Art
>--------
>On Fri, 12 Feb 2010 11:21:01 -0500, Mike Zdeb <msz03@ALBANY.EDU> wrote:
>
>>hi Mike ... if you choose to drive ...
>>
>>http://www.sascommunity.org/wiki/Driving_Distances_and_Drive_Times_using_
S
>AS_and_Google_Maps
>>
>>you'll find that ...
>>
>>DRIVING DISTANCE BETWEEN ZIPS 20850 AND 98101: 2743 MILES (TIME: 1 day
>19 hours )
>>
>>
>>ps shameless self-promotion ... stop in at Coders' Corner on Monday at
>11:15 AM and listen to ...
>>
>>Driving Distances and Times Using SAS? and Google Maps
>>Mike Zdeb, U@Albany School of Public Health
>>Paper 050-2010
>>SAS? 9.2 contains new functions (ZIPCITYDISTANCE, GEODIST) that allow a
>user to compute geodesic
>>distance (the shortest distance between two point on the surface of a
>sphere). Both functions use
>>the Vincenty distance formula. Prior to SAS 9.2, a user had to use a DATA
>step and write an equation
>>to compute such distances. The most common method was to use the
>Haversine formula. Vincenty and
>>Haversine distance estimates are straight line distances and there are
>occasions where that type
>>of estimate is what you need. There are other occasions where what you
>want is not the straight
>>line distance, but a driving distance. Given only one combination of
>locations, using Google Maps
>>to get the driving distance and time is no problem. However, if you have
>a large number of location
>>pairs, a FILENAME statement and the URL access method within SAS can be
>used to access Google Maps
>>multiple times and extract both the driving distance and time each time
>the site is accessed.
>>
>>
>>
>>--
>>Mike Zdeb
>>U@Albany School of Public Health
>>One University Place
>>Rensselaer, New York 12144-3456
>>P/518-402-6479 F/630-604-1475
>>
>>
>>> Dear SAS-L-ers,
>>>
>>> So, how long and winding is _YOUR_ road to SAS Global Forum 2010?
>>>
>>> Well, if you take the "winds" out of _MY_ "long and winding road", it
>is 2,315 miles from the sunny, snow draped SAS Mecca campus in beautiful
>>> Rockville Maryland to the Emerald City:
>>>
>>> data gointoseattle;
>>>
>>> sgf2010_dist = put(zipcitydistance(20850,98101),comma.);
>>>
>>> label sgf2010_dist = "My Travel Distance to SAS Global Forum 2010";
>>>
>>> put sgf2010_dist;
>>>
>>> run;
>>>
>>> proc print noobs data=gointoseattle label;
>>>
>>> run;
>>>
>>> This should be a straight-forward calculation for the U.S. of A. SAS-L-
>ers, but those who hang their hats in other lands will likely have to go
to
>>> this program:
>>>
>>> data gointoseattle;
>>>
>>> sgf2010_dist = put(geodist(39.085920,-77.174389,47.611330,-
>122.333219,"M"),comma.);
>>>
>>> label sgf2010_dist = "My Travel Distance to SAS Global Forum 2010";
>>>
>>> put sgf2010_dist;
>>>
>>> run;
>>>
>>> proc print noobs data=gointoseattle label;
>>>
>>> run;
>>>
>>> Of course, many of these 'L-ers might choose to substitute "K"
>(kilometers) for "M" (miles) to keep the distance in their own
>perspective. Miles;
>>> kilometers; what's a few klicks between friends?!?!?
>>>
>>> So, will you be earning more Frequent Flyer miles/kilometers that I
>will in April?
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