Author: Tim_Muir@biogen.com at internet Date: 10/10/2000 11:57 AM Subject: BASUG Quarterly Meeting, October 24, 2000 - UPDATE ----------------------------------------------------------- The Boston Area SAS Users Group Message List - October 24, 2000 ----------------------------------------------------------- - Quarterly Meeting, October 24, 2000 - UPDATE !!!!! MEETING LOCATION CHANGED TO ACCOMODATE MORE PEOPLE !!!!! Because so many people want to attend, we have moved our Oct 24 meeting to a much larger room at Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Massachusetts. - Everyone who was registered for the meeting before is still registered; you don't have to RSVP again. - Everyone on the waiting list before will be automatically registered for the meeting; you don't have to do anything. - Anyone else who would like to attend the meeting must register by Monday, Oct 23 (details below). ----------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------- Meeting Announcement - UPDATED with NEW MEETING LOCATION ----------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------- WHAT: Quarterly BASUG Meeting WHEN: Tuesday, October 24, 2000 - 8:30AM to 12:30PM WHERE: Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Massachusetts 100 Summer Street Boston, MA RSVP: REQUIRED - You MUST send your name and company name via e-mail ONLY by Monday, Oct 23 to: karin.collier@sas.com DIRECTIONS: See below. Please note special directions if you are driving. AGENDA: 8:30-9:00 Coffee and registration 9:00-10:00 "Exception Reports for Zero Observations", Bob Virgile 10:00-10:15 Break 10:15-11:15 "PROC SQL for DATA Step Die-Hards", Christianna S. Williams 11:15-11:30 Break 11:30-12:30 "You CAN Get There from Here (and Back Again): Adding Hot-link Drill-down Capabilities to ODS HTML Output", Ray Pass CONTACT: If you have questions about the meeting, contact: Ming Yuan: 617-478-7123 ----------------------------------------------------------- ABSTRACTS AND BIOS: ----------------------------------------------------------- 9:00 - 10:00 " Exception Reports for Zero Observations" by Bob Virgile , Robert Virgile Associates When cleaning data, some programs find zero observations with bad data values. That's no problem if a programmer is examining the results. But if an end user examines the results, all he notices is that there is no report. He doesn't examine the log to see that there were zero observations in the output data set. What happens? The user calls you, complaining that your program isn't working. How can you avoid this, giving the user a report that explains there were no bad data points? This paper explains the programming techniques. ----------------------------------------------------------- 10:15 - 11:15 "PROC SQL for DATA Step Die-Hards " by Christianna S. Williams, Yale University PROC SQL can be rather intimidating for those who have learned SAS data management techniques exclusively using the DATA STEP. However, when it comes to data manipulation, SAS often provides more than one method to achieve the same result, and SQL provides another valuable tool to have in one's repertoire. Further, Structured Query Language is implemented in many widely used relational database systems with which SAS may interface, so it is a worthwhile skill to have from that perspective as well. This tutorial will present a series of increasingly complex examples. In each case I will demonstrate the DATA STEP method with which users are probably already familiar, followed by SQL code that will accomplish the same data manipulation. The simplest examples will include subsetting variables (columns, in SQL parlance) and observations (rows), while the most complex situations will include MERGEs (JOINS) of several types and the summarization of information over multiple observations for BY groups of interest. This approach will clarify for which situations the DATA STEP method or, conversely, PROC SQL would be better suited. The emphasis will be on writing clear, concise, debug-able SAS code, not on which types of programs run the fastest on which platforms. ----------------------------------------------------------- 11:30-12:30 "You CAN Get There from Here (and Back Again): Adding Hot-link Drill-down Capabilities to ODS HTML Output" by Ray Pass, Ray Pass Consulting The SAS Output Delivery System (ODS) can be used to create HTML pages for publishing on the Internet or an Intranet. Right out of the box (and the box is FREE too! - with Base SAS), ODS can be used to create either one page per procedure output, or a collection of HTML pages per procedure. ODS does provide within-procedure HTML navigability, but there is no wholesale provision provided for inter-procedure output linking By using simple SAS MACRO processing combined with the manipulation of TITLE statements, basic data set variable values and values of variables used as CLASS variables in TABULATE procedures, you can create whole systems of hot-linked pages with almost full drill-down capabilities. The technique is to simply substitute HTML-navigational tag-enriched data values for those displayed values that you want to act as hot links, and let ODS do the rest! Techniques and examples are shown in this paper, along with data-driven techniques for renaming ODS-HTML generated sequential body file names into more meaningful content-oriented names. ----------------------------------------------------------- Bob Virgile is a SAS veteran, having participated in every NESUG and many SUGI, MWSUG, PharmaSUG, NYASUG, and SESUG conferences. Besides presenting papers, Bob creates the problem-solving contests for SUGI and NESUG, and has published two books through SAS Institute. Bob also has been teaching an outstanding series of SAS classes since 1983. Christianna S. Williams has been a programmer/analyst in the Epidemiology and Public Health Department at Yale University for seven years. She has lectured on SAS topics, including MACRO and SQL to graduate students and research professionals as well as at NESUG meetings. She has been using SAS for data management and analysis in academic research for almost fifteen years. Ray Pass, Ph.D., is an independent SAS consultant and has been using the SAS System for too many years. He is the co-author, with Ron Cody, of "Programming SAS by Example" (1995) and has delivered many invited papers at national, regional and local SAS user groups. Ray's primary areas of expertise in theSAS System are report generation and data manipulation. In addition to teaching SAS courses, Ray has also been quite active in organizing and participating in SAS user group activities on various levels. Ray was one of the founders of both the New York Area SAS Users Group (NYASUG) and the NorthEast SAS Users Group (NESUG.) Ray co-chaired the first two NESUG annual conferences ('88, '89) and has been a Section Chair at many SAS User Group International (SUGI) annual conventions. ----------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------- Logistics --------------------------------------------------------------- The meeting will be held at Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Massachusetts, 100 Summer Street, in downtown Boston. Take the escalator to the second floor of the building and check in at the security desk. A free continental breakfast will be available from 8:30 to 9:00 am. The meeting will start promptly at 9:00 am. --------------------------------------------------------------- Directions --------------------------------------------------------------- Public Transportation: The best way to get to the meeting is to take the MBTA to downtown Boston. BC/BS is on Summer Street, no more than a 5 minute walk from the Downtown Crossing station (Red and Orange lines), the State Street station (the Blue line), Park Street station (the Green line), and South Station (commuter rail). Parking: The most convenient parking is at the Owl Parking lot (located directly behind BC/BS) for about $12 per day. The following driving directions are to this lot. From the North: Take the expressway South to exit 22-South Station. (Entrance is just before the tunnel.) Come to the set of lights at the top of the ramp. Go through the set of lights and bear to the right. Come to the next set of lights. Go straight through, continuing through 2 more sets of lights. Owl Parking will be on the right. From the South: Take the expressway North to the Downtown/Chinatown-Mass. Pike exit. Bear left following the Downtown exit sign. Come to the bottom of the ramp. Go straight onto Lincoln Street. Come to the set of lights and Owl Parking will be on the left after the set of lights. From the West Take the Mass. Pike East to the South Station/Chinatown exit. Follow the Kneeland Street/ Chinatown sign. At the bottom of the ramp, take a left. Take a right at the set of lights onto Lincoln Street. Come to the set of lights and Owl Parking will be on the left after the set of lights. ----------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------- BASUG Web Site ----------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------- Our site on the World Wide Web always contains the latest information concerning upcoming meetings, positions available, and consultants for hire. There are new job openings added by local companies nearly every week. Check Our web site: http://www.basug.org ----------------------------------------------------------- BASUG Contacts: ----------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------- The Boston Area SAS Users Group (BASUG) WWW: http://www.basug.org US Mail: BASUG PO Box 253 Boston 02117 ----------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------- How to subscribe/unsubscribe from our message list ----------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------- The BASUG message list notifies subscribers of the latest plans concerning meetings, classes, conferences, and employment news of interest to local SAS users. To subscribe by e-mail: 1. Send a message to subscribe@basug.org 2. In the body of the message, simply type subscribe basug To unsubscribe: 1. Send a message to basugwm@basug.org 2. 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