Conference Workshops offer the bonus of additional educational experiences for SESUG Conference attendees. We have talented, recognized, and experienced instructors prepared to share their knowledge in these 4-hour sessions.

SESUG is scheduling five concurrent workshops this year on Sunday, October 19 from 8 am – noon and 1 pm – 5 pm.

The workshops cover a wide variety of topics and skill levels. These 4-hour workshops will appeal to everyone interested in exceptional in-depth training. Please note that workshops are an extra fee event at SESUG.

For information on registering for a workshop or the conference, please see Registration Information.

Mastering PROC SQL

Scheduled Time:  Sunday 8:00 am – 12:00 pm

Intended Audience:  Intermediate SAS programmers who are relatively new to PROC SQL and those familiar with SQL but relatively new to SAS.

Instructor:  Christianna Williams, Independent Consultant

From the most basic query to extract selected rows and columns to the intricacies of set operators, multi-table joins and nested queries, this workshop will help you master the SAS® implementation of Structured Query Language from the ground up.nbsp; This seminar is a sort of PROC SQL “boot camp” and will present a series of increasingly complex examples to illustrate the function of each of PROC SQL’s clauses, with particular focus on summarization, aggregation and a variety of joins.nbsp; We will also cover how SAS has adapted SQL to give you access to some useful DATA step functionality within PROC SQL.nbsp; The goal of the course is not only to help you learn the syntax of this powerful but sometimes intimidating Base SAS procedure, but also to illustrate how SQL “thinks” about rows and columns, some of which can cause unexpected results for the unwary user.nbsp; Afterwards, you should be able to write queries to achieve a variety of complex data manipulation tasks, some of which would be nearly impossible without your newfound mastery of PROC SQL.

Instructor Bio:   Christianna Williams, PhD, is an independent consultant based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, focusing on study design and statistical analyses and reporting in epidemiology and health services research.  Arguably, she spent way too much time in school and holds degrees from Duke University, Yale University and the University of California at Berkeley.  Christianna started using SAS as a graduate student in population biology in 1985 and is still learning!  She is a frequent presenter at local and regional user group conferences as well as SAS Global Forum, and has been teaching about PROC SQL for more than 10 years.  She also devotes as much time as possible to her other passions: running, vegetarian cooking and reading novels.

Advanced SAS® Programming Techniques

Scheduled Time:  Sunday 8:00 am – 12:00 pm

Intended Audience:  The intended audience is for All SAS users.  The pace of workshop is structured and attendees are given several achievable goals for learning advanced SAS programming techniques.

Instructor:  Kirk Paul Lafler, Software Intelligence Corporation

SAS users who have acquired basic skills presented in a SAS Software Basics course and want to expand their programming knowledge in the DATA and PROC steps will want to attend this Advanced SAS Programming Techniques course.  Attendees learn complex programming topics and techniques in the areas of data access, data manipulation, data management, data presentation, and more.  Topics include intensive DATA step programming techniques such as reading and writing data/output from/to MS-Excel spreadsheets; creating and using user-defined formats and functions; using specialized ODS techniques for improved output including ODS statistical graphics; reshaping columns and rows of data with the TRANSPOSE procedure along with equivalent DATA step approaches; coding and using one-dimensional and multi-dimensional arrays, loops, and ranges; exploring the details associated with index rules and strategies; performing dataset transformations using PROC SQL join constructs and DATA step hash objects; using operators and modifiers to search data; and drill-down techniques.

Instructor Bio:   Kirk Paul Lafler is consultant and founder of Software Intelligence Corporation and has been programming in SAS since 1979.  He is a SAS Certified Professional, application developer, programmer, data scientist and provider of IT consulting services and training to SAS users around the world.  As an author of six books including Google Search Complete! (Odyssey Press. 2014), PROC SQL: Beyond the Basics Using SAS, Second Edition (SAS Institute. 2013) and PROC SQL: Beyond the Basics Using SAS (SAS Institute. 2004), he has written more than five hundred papers and articles, been an Invited speaker at four hundred-plus SAS International, regional, special-interest, local, and in-house user group conferences/meetings, and is the recipient of 23 “Best” contributed paper, hands-on workshop (HOW), and poster awards.  His popular SAS Tips column, “Kirk’s Korner of Quick and Simple Tips”, appears regularly in several SAS User Group newsletters and Websites, and his fun-filled SASword Puzzles are featured in SAScommunity.org and many SAS Newsletters.

Help Me! Switch to SAS Enterprise Guide from Traditional SAS

Scheduled Time:  Sunday 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Intended Audience:  All levels

Instructor:  Andy Ravenna, SAS

When first presented with SAS Enterprise Guide, many existing SAS programmers don’t know where to begin and want to understand “What’s in it for me?” if they switch over.  These longtime users of SAS are accustomed to typing all their code into the Program Editor window and simply hitting the Submit key.  This beginning tutorial introduces SAS Enterprise Guide 6.1 to old and new users of SAS who need to code.  It even points out advantages and tips that will demonstrate why a user would be excited about the switch.  This tutorial focuses on the key points of a session involving coding and introduces new features.  It also covers the top three items for a user to consider when switching over to a server-based environment.  Attendees will return to the office with a new motivation and confidence to start coding with SAS Enterprise Guide.

Instructor Bio:   Andy Ravenna, Principal Technical Training Consultant, New York Regional Office, has a BS in Chemical Engineering, and an MS in Applied Mathematics; both from NC State University with a minor in Statistics.  He has used SAS since 1985 and began teaching in 1988.  Andy joined the QA department at the Institute in 1990, providing Technical services beginning 1996 in the Consulting department.  In 2000 he started teaching SAS for the Education Division and is currently certified to teach over 20 courses.  Particularly well versed in SAS Enterprise Guide, Andy has written and delivered several papers on the topic at conferences.

Building Reusable Tools with the SAS ® Macro Language

Scheduled Time:  Sunday 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Intended Audience:  The intended audience is for All SAS users.  The pace of workshop is structured and attendees are given several achievable goals in building reusable tools. Beginner with a basic understanding of the structure of a SAS data set.

Instructor:  Kirk Paul Lafler, Software Intelligence Corporation

The SAS® Macro Language is a powerful feature for extending and customizing the capabilities of the SAS System.  This workshop presents a practical approach to macro tool design along with a collection of techniques and strategies for constructing reusable and effective macros tools.  Attendees learn how to build functional macro tools that identify the input sources needed, what the processes of the tool are, and the output type and sources are; process statements containing SAS code; learn basic design principles in the development of reusable macro tools; create macros containing keyword and positional parameters; utilize defensive programming techniques; build a library of macro utility tools; interface the macro language with the SQL procedure; and develop efficient and portable macro language code.

Instructor Bio:   Kirk Paul Lafler is consultant and founder of Software Intelligence Corporation and has been programming in SAS since 1979.  He is a SAS Certified Professional, application developer, programmer, data scientist and provider of IT consulting services and training to SAS users around the world.  As an author of six books including Google Search Complete! (Odyssey Press. 2014), PROC SQL: Beyond the Basics Using SAS, Second Edition (SAS Institute. 2013) and PROC SQL: Beyond the Basics Using SAS (SAS Institute. 2004), he has written more than five hundred papers and articles, been an Invited speaker at four hundred-plus SAS International, regional, special-interest, local, and in-house user group conferences/meetings, and is the recipient of 23 “Best” contributed paper, hands-on workshop (HOW), and poster awards.  His popular SAS Tips column, “Kirk’s Korner of Quick and Simple Tips”, appears regularly in several SAS User Group newsletters and Websites, and his fun-filled SASword Puzzles are featured in SAScommunity.org and many SAS Newsletters.