Data Analysis in SAS

The SAS System is an integrated system of data management, analysis and presentation.  This course, designed for people with little or no knowledge of the package, provides an introduction to the SAS System using an applied (hands on) approach.  More than 50% of the time will be spent at the terminal.  The course will provide participants with sufficient knowledge of the Base SAS module of the SAS system so that they can create and run their own SAS programs.  They will learn how to create a SAS data set, to use SAS for basic data management, data transformation, simple statistical analysis, summarising data with tables and graphs, and to generate simple reports.  Most of these topics will be covered within the context of analysing questionnaire data.
 
The emphasis will be on using SAS, rather than learning statistical concepts.  However, time may be taken to discuss these when necessary.  While the course concentrates on Base SAS, some exposure to SAS/ASSIST, SAS/STAT, SAS/GRAPH, SAS/INSIGHT and perhaps other SAS modules will be given.
 
Topics covered include overview of the SAS system; loading and running SAS; basic editing; inputting data; from questionnaire to SAS; permanent SAS data sets; sorting and printing; using SAS formats; documenting programs with comments, titles, footnotes, and variable labels; creating and storing your own formats using PROC FORMAT; summarising data using MEANS, UNIVARIATE, FREQ, PLOT and CHART procedures; SAS ASSIST; programming in SAS, working with dates, merging and splitting SAS data sets.  Importing and exporting from/to Excel, text, SPSS, or other formats.  More detailed tables with PROC TABULATE, and regression with PROC REG may be covered with the group, or individually, if time permits.