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Macro Programming
Macro Programming
This eLearning pathway will provide you with the knowledge, tools and techniques to enhance your code and which you can apply in a wide range of settings to make your programs smarter. Learn how to write flexible and efficient code using macro variables and functions.
There are mini quizzes and comprehensive exercises throughout to help assess and reinforce your learning.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this pathway you will be able to:
- Explain the introductory elements and concepts of the Language of SAS.
- Describe ten fundamental Programming Concepts within the Language of SAS.
- Describe how macro variables and macro functions can be used to help you write more efficient code in the Language of SAS
What You Will Be Taught
Introduction to SAS Programming
Learning Objective: Explain what the Language of SAS is used for and by whom.
- Explanation about SAS and who uses it
- Data Access
- Data Management
- Data Analysis
- Data Presentation
Basic Concepts
Learning Objective: Explain how the Language of SAS is used to access, manage, analyse and present data.
- What is a dataset, a database and a relational database?
- Libraries, LIBREFS, LIBNAME statement
- Referencing a dataset
- The Data Step procedure
- Basic Procedures including PROC MEANS and PROC PRINT
Investigating SAS datasets
Learning Objective: Define how to investigate datasets in the Language of SAS using two types of Procedure.
- The PRINT procedure
- Metadata, the CONTENTS procedure
- Types of data
Programming Concepts
Learning Objective: Describe the key programming concepts within the Language of SAS.
- Program components – Data Steps and Procedures
- Programming language is made up of statements, expressions, functions & call routines, options, formats, and informats
- Managing Syntax errors
- Naming conventions
Data Step Processing
Learning Objective: Explain how the two phases of Data Step Processing work to create new datasets and variables.
- Data Step syntax: The DATA and SET Statements
- Creating Datasets
- Creating Variables
- Data Step processing, i.e. what goes on in the background when you submit your data step code.
Selecting Variables and Observations
Learning Objective: Define Variables and Observations to be read from and written to datasets.
- KEEPing and DROPing Variables
- The IF Statement
- The WHERE Statement
- FIRSTOBS= and OBS=
- IS NULL or IS MISSING
- BETWEEN-AND
- CONTAINS (?) and SOUNDS LIKE (=*)
Character Functions
Learning Objective: Describe how functions are used to perform character transformation including:
SUBSTR, SCAN, TRIM, COMPRESS, LEFT, RIGHT, CATX, INDEX, FIND, UPCASE, LOWCASE, PROPCASE and TRANWRD
Numeric Functions
Learning Objective: Describe how functions are used to perform numeric transformation including:
SUM, MEAN, MIN, MAX, ROUND, CEIL, FLOOR, INT
Date Functions
Learning Objective: Describe how functions are used to perform date transformation including:
TODAY, DATE, MDY, DAY, MONTH, YEAR, WEEKDAY, QTR, TIME / DATETIME, TIMEPART / DATEPART, INTCK / INTNX, YRDIF / DATDIF
Introduction to Macro processing
Learning Objective: Explain basic Macro Processing in the Language of SAS.
- Compilation and Execution phases
- Tokenization
- Macro Triggers
- The %PUT Statement
- Displaying macro variable values
Introduction to Macro variables
Learning Objective: Describe six different features of Macro Variables.
- Macro Variable Storage
- Macro Variable Resolution
- User-Defined Macro Variables
- The %LET Statement
- The SYMBOLGEN Option
- Delimiting Macro Variables
Macro Functions
Learning Objective: Identify three different types of Macro Functions.
- Character Functions – review
- Using Macro Functions
- Macro Functions for Numbers
- The %SYSFUNC and other functions including: %INDEX, %SCAN, %SUBSTR, %UPCASE, %BQUOTE, %STR, %NRBQUOTE, %NRSTR, %EVAL and % SYSEVALF.
What You Should Already Know
This learning pathway is aimed at those who are new to the Language of SAS.
You should already have:
- Knowledge of your computer system
- Basic computer literacy
- Some previous programming experience, although this is not essential
For the hands-on practice activities you will need access to an environment that runs the programming Language of SAS. On our courses, we signpost you to some of the free tools available. Check out the link below to review system requirements:
Buy Now
Interested in expanding your skills and knowledge in the workplace? This course is a fantastic string to add to your bow.
Don’t miss out, click below to enrol today!
