DETAILED TABLE OF CONTENTS

GENERAL GUIDELINES Windows in SAS Navigation commands Five SAS windows File Management Saving files Organizing files Documenting files THE SAS PROGRAM (general tips) Program Syntax Submitting a SAS program Characteristics of SAS statements and SAS language Example of SAS program syntax SAS program development Debugging Tips (messages in the log) Notes Errors Warnings SIMULATED MANITOBA HEALTH DATA The following information is relevant for working with the simulated MB Health data: Prepare the data Version 1 (unformatted) Version 2 (with labels and formats) Record layout (variable definitions) Related files (formats and labels) Practice Exercises USING SAS PROGRAMMING TO: 1. Prepare the data set The data matrix (values, variables, observations) Variable characteristics (length, numeric vs character, missing values) SAS statements required to read/save permanent/temporary: SAS data sets Non-SAS data sets ASCII (e.g., simulated MB Health data) generated by other software packages (FYI only - not required for the course) Example programs Creating/reading permanent SAS data set Creating/reading temporary SAS data set Creating permanent SAS data set from ASCII data 2. View the data PROC CONTENTS - to obtain list of variables PROC PRINT - to obtain list of values PROC SORT - to sort the data PROC FORMAT - to create formats for manipulating the data for labeling values; used in conjunction with FORMAT statement (customizing data - see below) also used for creating new variables by grouping values; used in conjunction with PUT statement (creating new variables - see below) Practice Exercises 3. Explore the data Numeric statistics PROC MEANS PROC UNIVARIATE Practice questions Frequency tables PROC FREQ Practice Exercises 4. Manipulate the data Basic techniques Create subgroups of data (WHERE, KEEP/DROP, OBS=) Customize display of output (LABEL, FORMAT, TITLE, FOOTNOTE statements) Practice Exercises New variables Syntax Create new variables using: IF/THEN or PUT statements to group values of variables; arithmetic operators to calculate variables SUBSTR function to shorten the values of variables; Practice Exercises 5. Adding Variables and Observations to Data Sets Adding observations using the SET statement Concatenating Data Sets Interleaving Data Sets Adding variables using the MERGE statement One-to-One Merge One-to-Many Merge Practice Exercises 6. Data Processing Array Statement Do Loops By-Group Processing (First. /Last.) Retain Statement Practice Exercises