Universal Data Access with ODBC and OLE DB S. David Riba, JADE Tech, Inc., Clearwater, FL Saturday Afternoon, 1:30-5:30pm
ODBC and OLE DB provide open access to data across hardware platforms and applications. If you have struggled with the need to get information into or out of SAS, Excel, Lotus 1-2-3, Oracle, SQL Server, etc., then ODBC or OLE DB might be the solution to your problems. ODBC (Open DataBase Connectivity) and OLE DB (OLE for DataBases) are two technologies currently widely available to access many different types of data in a common manner. Along with many other vendors, SAS Institute has incorporated these technologies into the SAS System. This course will demonstrate how to install, configure, and use both ODBC and OLE DB. After attending this workshop, you should understand the concepts behind both ODBC and OLE DB. You should understand when it is appropriate to use ODBC, and when OLE DB is a better solution. Open access to data, whether it is SAS, Excel, Lotus 1-2-3, means that there is a common method to read and write data across many different platforms. You will learn how to access Microsoft, Lotus, and other data from within the SAS system. You will also learn how to access SAS data from Microsot, Lotus, and a web browser interface. This course is a beginning level course in ODBC and OLE DB, and is intended for the intermediate to advanced SAS user. The course will be presented by S. David Riba of JADE Tech, Inc., a SAS Institute Quality Partner and SAS Certified Professional.
S. David Riba is CEO of JADE Tech, Inc., a SAS Institute Quality Partner who specializes entirely in applications development, consulting and training in the SAS System. Dave has presented papers and assisted in various capacities at SUGI, SESUG, NESUG, MWSUG, SCSUG, and PharmaSUG. His major areas of interest are efficient programming techniques and applications development using the SAS System. His SAS software product specialties are SAS/AF and FRAME technology, SAS/EIS, SAS/IntrNet, AppDev Studio, CFO/Vision, and the SAS Collaborative Server. Dave is a SAS Certified Professional. Dave is currently the Co-Chair of SSU 2001, the combined SouthEast and SouthCentral SAS Users Group conference to be held in New Orleans in August, 2001.
ODS, YES! Odious, NO! An Introduction to the SAS Output Delivery System Ray Pass, Ray Pass Consulting, Hartsdale, NY and Sally Muller and Lara K. Bryant, UNC, Chapel Hill, NC Saturday Afternoon, 1:30-5:30pm
ODS (originally pronounced ‘odious’, but now pronounced ‘ya gotta love it’) is the new SAS system facility that you can use to format your PROC and DATA output in ways only recently dreamed about. ODS offers greatly enhanced flexibility and ease of use for all SAS users. This workshop will demonstrate the basics of ODS, emphasizing methods of directing standard PROC output to the following production destinations: Listing - (default SAS output window); HTML – (HyperText Markup Language for web pages); Output – (creation of output SAS data sets). The Printer destination (postscript ready printer files) is also in production now, but will not be covered in this workshop. There are also a number of experimental destinations (RTF, XML, LaTex, HTML Stylesheet), which are may or may not be covered in this workshop (time dependent). Whenever you run a SAS procedure, any SAS procedure, ODS combines each of the data components of the procedure with a specific table definition (template) to create an output object, or a series of output objects. ODS then allows you to direct these specific output objects to one or many of the output destinations noted above. This workshop will demonstrate these features of the new ODS. Hold on.
Ray Pass 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 the SAS 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. Sally Muller is a Policy Analyst/Clinical Instructor for the School of Social Work at the University of North Carolina. Sally began using SAS software in 1978 and has taught introductory SAS classes to many generations of SAS users. Sally has given papers to national, regional, and local SAS users groups. She was the 1997 receipient of the SAS Institute User Feedback Award. Sally finds that SAS novices and even people with limited computing knowledge can learn to use the new Version 8 Output Delivery System (ODS). A desire to show the simplicity and advantages of ODS over old-style method of procedure output is the motivation of this paper. Lara is a graduate student in the Department of Economics at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. She has taught introductory classes on ODS for both the UNC campus and for SUGI. Lara is also a PhD graduate student in economics at UNC-CH.
Turning External Data into SAS Data Andrew T. Kuligowski, Neilson Media Research, Dunedin, FL Sunday Morning, 8:00am-12:00pm
The SAS® System has numerous capabilities to store, analyze, report, and present data. However, those features are useless unless that data restored in or can be accessed by the SAS System. This seminar will provide a brief introduction to many of the different methods that can be used to pass data into the SAS System. The class will consist of an overview of numerous methods that can be used to introduce external data into the SAS System, from the basic to the advanced. The attendees will be exposed to the menu-driven technique of the SAS Import Wizard. They will be introduced to the traditional method of using the INFILE and INPUT statements within the DATA step. The students will learn of a number of different techniques for processing common PC files such as Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. These include Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) and ODBC (Open DataBase Connectivity). Additional topics will be discussed as time permits.
Andrew T. Kuligowski has been a computer professional for almost 20 years. He has been programming with the SAS System throughout his career. Andy joined Nielsen Media Research in 1986, after spending 5 years in the petrochemical industry. He has been involved in a myriad of projects since then, most of them dealing with the cable television industry. In his spare time, Andrew consults, lectures, and teaches about SAS usage, and serves on the Executive Council for the SouthEast SAS Users Group. Andrew proudly served as Conference Co-Chair for SESUG'97, which was held in Jacksonville, Florida.
Web 101 Caroline Bahler, Meridian Software, Inc., Raleigh, NC Sunday Morning, 8:00am-12:00pm
This course is an overview of different web development technology. It is designed to jump start the web development process. The subjects covered will be HTML – focusing on version 4, JavaScript, Dynamic HTML, Other technologies. In addition, the differences between the IE and Netscape will be discussed with attention paid to cross browser functionality. A knowledge of basic HTML and web terminology is helpful but not necessary.
Caroline Bahler has worked with numerous versions of SAS over the last 20 years. In addition, she has used SAS on multiple platforms. Her education includes a PhD in Agronomy.
Delivering Results with SAS® Output Delivery System (ODS) Kirk Paul Lafler, Software Intelligence Corp., Sunday Afternoon, 1:30-5:30pm
The SAS® Output Delivery System (ODS) provides many ways to format output. It controls the way output is accessed and formatted. ODS continues to support the creation of traditional SAS monospace output (e.g., Listing), but provides many new features and greater flexibility when working with output. ODS was introduced in Version 6.12 as a way to address the inherent weaknesses found in traditional SAS output. It enables "quality" output to be produced without having to import it into word processors. With Version 8, many new output formatting features and options are introduced for SAS users to take advantage of. Users have a powerful and easy way to create and access formatted procedure and DATA step output. Students will learn the advantages / disadvantages with traditional SAS output; advantages of ODS; how ODS handles raw data; how ODS combines raw data with table definitions; how to open, close, and manage output destinations; how the Results window stores links to ODS output; how selection and exclusion lists are used; how to create output data sets, RTF files, HTML output, and postscript files; how to create ODS output from the DATA step; and how to customize output with the TEMPLATE procedure.
Kirk is senior consultant and founder of Software Intelligence Corporation. He is a SAS Institute Quality Partner™ and has been working with the SAS® System since 1976 as a programmer and trainer. Kirk has served as chairperson of the Southern California SAS Users Group (SCSUG), secretary to the Western Users of SAS Software (WUSS), adviser to the Pharmaceutical SAS Users Group (PharmaSUG), and public relations director for the San Diego SAS Users Group (SANDS). His areas of expertise include applications design, systems analysis, and development; SAS training; and SAS programming using base-SAS, SAS/SQL, SAS Output Delivery System (ODS), SAS/FSP, SAS/AF, Screen Control Language, FRAME, and SAS/EIS software.
Merging, Combining and Subsetting Files (Tricks, Traps, and Techniques) Malachy J. Foley, UNC-Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC Sunday Afternoon, 1:30-5:30pm
This workshop is for anyone who manipulates SAS data sets. It covers a wide range of topics such as subsetting, concatenations, the IN= data set option, FIRST.variable, one-to-one merges, match merges, and fuzzy merges. The workshop starts with the basics and continues to build up to complex and tricky examples of data set manipulation. The only prerequisite for the course is a working knowledge of the SAS DATA Step. Yet, this workshop will give intermediate and advanced programmers a great review and some surprises. Come see what mysteries lurk in manipulating SAS files!
Mal Foley is currently a SAS Programmer/Analyst with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His career includes being an international computing consultant, a university professor, a manager of several computing departments, and the CEO of his own computing company. Mal has consulted to IBM, Dow Chemical, Ford-Rockefeller Foundation, United Nations, Department of Agriculture, Agency for International Development, and many universities. He has taught dozens of computer programming courses at the undergraduate, graduate, and professional levels. He publishes papers and gives presentations at many regional SAS user's groups and SUGI.

This is the planned grid of scheduled workshops. Please be aware that this grid could change.

Saturday, 14 October, 2000

Sunday, 15 October, 2000