I have a large SAS dataset and I would like to make a series of tables and charts using by value processing. I am outputing these to a PDF.
Is there any way to get SAS to alternate between the table and the chart as it goes through the data? Right now, I have to print all of the tables first and then print the charts. If it were just 4 tables/charts, then I would be ok writing
Here is a simple example:
data sample;
input byval $ item $ amount;
datalines;
A X 15
A Y 16
A Z 12
B X 25
B Y 10
B Z 18
;
run;
symbol1 i=j;
proc print data=sample;
by byval;
var item amount;
run;
proc gplot uniform data=sample;
by byval;
plot amount*item;
run;
This prints 2 tables, followed by 2 charts.
I would like the Chart for "A" to come after the table for "A" so that the reader can flip through the pdf and always see the associated charts and tables together.
I could write separate procs for each one, but then the gplot won't have a uniform axis (and it gets messy if I have 100 different groups instead of 2).
I thought about pumping them into greplay but then you can't use titles with "#BYVAL1".
Is there any easy way to do this?
I've never used it, but it may be worth checking out ODS DOCUMENT. This allows you to store the output of all your procedures and then reference specific items from them using PROC DOCUMENT.
Below is a link to the SAS website with useful information about this, in particular the paper by Cynthia Zender for the SAS Global Forum 2009.
http://support.sas.com/rnd/base/ods/odsdocument/index.html
Cynthia also regularly contributes to the SAS Support Communities website (https://communities.sas.com/community/support-communities), so it may be worth asking on there if you are still stuck.
Good luck
I don't know of any way to do what you ask directly. GREPLAY is probably the closest you'll come; the primary problem is that SAS processes the PROCs linearly, first processing the entire PROC PRINT, then the entire PROC GPLOT. GREPLAY would allow you to redisplay the output, but if that doesn't work for your needs due to the #BYVAL issue, I'm not sure there's a better solution. Perhaps you can modify the title afterwards (not sure if GREPLAY allows this)?
You could try using ODS LAYOUT, but I don't think that would be any better. The one way it could be better is if you can work out having two columns on a 'page', one column being the PROC PRINT outputs, one the PROC GPLOT, and then print the columns one page than the other. I don't think this is possible, but it might be worth exploring.
You might also try setting up a macro to do each BYVAL separately, defining the axis in a uniform manner manually (ie, defining it based on your own calculation of the correct axis parameters, as an argument to the macro). That is probably the easiest solution that might still allow #BYVAL to work properly.
You might also try browsing about Richard DeVenezia's site (http://www.devenezia.com/downloads/sas/samples/ ) which has a lot of examples of SAS/GRAPH solutions. He also posts on SAS-L (sasl#listserv.uga.edu) sometimes, not sure if I've seen him on StackOverflow. He's probably the person most likely to be able to answer the question that I know of.
Related
I am new to SAS and I have the following problem:
When trying to join records I just imported (in one table) with records I have stored in another table.
What happens is that I am going to run the code in SAS daily, and I need the table that I am going to create today (17/05/2021) by importing a file 'X', to join the table that I created yesterday (16/05/2021) by importing a file 'Y'.
And so the code will be executed tomorrow, the next day and so on.
In conclusion the records will accumulate as the days go by.
To tackle this problem, I am first creating two variables, one with the date of the day the code will be executed and the other with the date of the last execution.
%let daily_date = 20210423; /*AAAAMMDD*/
%let last_execution_date = 20210422; /*AAAAMMDD*/
Then the import of a file is done, we can see that the name of this created table has the date of the day in which the code is being executed.
data InputAC.RA_ratings&daily_date;
infile "&ruta_InputRA." FIRSTOBS=2
dsd lrecl=4096 truncover;
input
#1 RA_Customer_ID $10.
#11 Rating_ID 10.
#21 ISRM_Model_Overlay_ID $10.
#31 Constant_ID 10.
#41 Value $100.
;
run;
proc sort data=inputac.RA_ratings&daily_date;
by RA_Customer_ID Rating_ID;
quit;
Finally the union of InputAC.RA_ratings&daily_date with InputAC.RA_ratings&last_execution_date is made. ('InputAC.RA_ratings&last_execution_date' should be the table that was imported at an earlier date than today.)
data InputAC.RA_ratings&fec_diario;
merge
InputAC.RA_ratings&fec_diario
InputAC.RA_ratings&ultima_fecha_de_ejecucion;
by RA_Customer_ID Rating_ID;
run;
This is how the tables are being stored on the server.
(Ignore date 20210413, let's imagine it is 20210422)
However, I have to perform this task without using the variable 'last_execution_date'.
I've been researching but I still can't find any SAS function that can help me with this problem.
I hope someone can help me, thank you very much in advance.
This is a pretty complex and interesting question from an operations point of view. The answer depends on a few things.
How much control do you have over the execution of this process?
Is "yesterday" guaranteed, or does the process need to work if "last execution date" is not yesterday?
What should happen if the process is run twice today?
The best practices way to solve this is to have a dataset (or table) that stores the last execution date. That allows you to handle #2 trivially, and the answer to #3 might guide exactly how you store this but is easily handled anyway.
Say for example you have a table, MetaAC.LastExecDate (or, in spanish, MetaAC.UltimaFecha or similar). It could store things this way:
data LastExecDate;
timestamp = datetime();
execdate = input(&daily_date,yymmdd8.);
run;
proc append base=MetaAC.LastExecDate data=LastExecDate;
run;
This lets you store an arbitrary execdate even if it's not today, and also store when you ran it (for audit purposes), and you could even add who ran it if that's interesting (there is a macro variable &sysuserid or similar). Then put all this at the bottom of your process, and it updates as you go.
Then, you can pull out from this the exact info you want - for example,
proc sql;
select max(execdate)
into :last_exec_date
from MetaAC.LastExecDate
where execdate ne today()
;
quit;
Now, if you don't have control over this for some reason, you could determine this in a different way. Again, the exact process depends on your circumstances and your answers to 2 and 3.
If your answer to 2 is you always want it to be yesterday, then this is really easy - just do this:
%let daily_date=20210517;
%let last_execution_date = %sysfunc(putn(%sysevalf(%sysfunc(inputn(&daily_date,yymmdd8.))-1),yymmddn8.));
%put &=last_execution_date;
The two %sysfuncs just do the input/put from SAS datastep inside the macro language, and %sysevalf lets you do math.
If you don't want it to always be the prior day (if there are weekends, or other days you don't necessarily want to assume it's the prior day), then your best bet is to either use the dictionary tables to look at what's there and find the largest date prior to your date, or maybe use a x command to look at the folder and do the same thing (might be easier to use OS command than to use SQL for this, sometimes SQL dictionary tables can be slow).
SAS has several forms it uses to create output data sets from within a procedure. It is not always clear whether or not a particular procedure can generate a data set and, if it seems to be able to, it's not always clear how.
Off the top of my head, here are some examples of how widely the syntax can differ.
Example 1
proc sort data = sashelp.baseball out = baseball_sorted;
by
league
division
;
run;
Example 2
proc means noprint data = baseball_sorted;
by
league
division
;
var nHits;
output
out = baseball_avg_hits (drop = _TYPE_ _FREQ_)
mean = mean_hits
;
run;
Example 3
ods exclude all;
ods output
statistics = baseball_statistics
equality = baseball_ftest
;
proc ttest data = baseball_sorted;
class league;
var nHits;
run;
ods exclude none;
Example 4
The PROC ANOVA OUTSTAT= option.
It seems almost as if SAS has implemented each of these willy-nilly. Is the SAS syntax dictating how to create a data set directed by some consistent approach I am not seeing or is it truly capricious and arbitrary?
For PROC code, the syntax for outputting data is often specific to that procedure, which often feels willy-nilly. (Your examples 1, 2, 4) I think PROC developers are given a lot of freedom, and remember that many of these PROCS are 30+ years old.
The great thing about the Output Delivery System (ODS, your example 3) is it provides a single syntax for outputting data, regardless of the procedure. So you can use the ODS OUTPUT statement with (almost?) any PROC. The names and structures of the output objects will of course vary between PROCs. So if you are looking for a consistent approach, I would focus on using ODS OUTPUT. ODS was added in V7 (I think).
It would be interesting to try to find an example of an output dataset which could be made by a PROC but could not be made by ODS OUTPUT. I hope there aren't any. If that is the case, you could consider the range of OUTPUT statements/options within PROCs as legacy code.
Agree with Quentin. You have to remember that there are SAS systems out there running code written in the 80s. SAS would have a huge headache if they forced every team to rewrite all the procedures and then forced their customers to change all their code. SAS has been around since the 60s and the organic growth of the syntax is to be expected.
FWIW, having an OUT= statement makes sense on things with no graphical output. I.E. PROC SORT or PROC TRANSPOSE.
The way I see it there are four main ways to specify the output data sets.
In the PROC statement you may be able to specify some type of output statements or options, such as OUT= OUTEST=.
In the main statement of the procedure, ie MODEL/TABLE can have options that allow for output. ie PROC FREQ has an OUT= on the TABLE statement.
An explicit OUTPUT statement within a procedure. These are typically from older procedures. ie PROC MEANS
ODS tables which are relatively newer method, more frequently used these days since the format aligns with what you'd expect to see.
Yes, there are multiple places to check, but fortunately the SAS documentation for procedures is relatively clear with the options and how to use/specify the outputs.
If I've missed anything that seems different post in the comments and I can update this.
PS. Although SAS is definitely bad, trying to navigate different packages/modules in Python to export an XLSX file isn't straight forward either. Some packages support some options others don't. I've given up on asking why these days and just accept it as peculiarities of the different languages at this point.
I'm trying to create a table using SAS 9.3 that shows information on current and past projects. For current projects, I want to show whether they've met various criteria ("yes", "no", OR "n/a"). In the same table, I want to show summary information of past projects (i.e. how many projects met the criteria, how many did not, and how many were n/a). Having one table to show current projects and one table to show past projects is easy. I'm struggling to show them together in a single table. Using proc tabulate, my code looks like this:
proc tabulate data = projects order=formatted missing;
class project;
var dt criteria1 criteria2 criteria3;
table
(dt=”Start Date)"*min=''*f=year_date.)
(criteria1="Criteria 1")*sum=''*f=ans.
(criteria2="Criteria 2")*sum=''*f=ans.
(criteria3="Criteria 3")*sum=''*f=ans.
,(project='');
format project $project_label.;
run;
The values for each criteria are 1 for yes, 0 for no, and . for n/a. The year format distinguishes current from past projects and the ans format shows "yes" for 1 and "no" for 0. This works for the the current projects. It also gives me the total number of past projects with "yes" answers. What I don't know how to do is the break-out for past projects showing no and n/a. (I'm also in trouble if there sum of past projects is 1 or 0 because the format would replace those with 'yes' or 'no.'
Any suggestions?
Thanks.
Brandon
Edit: I'll try to add some sample data that looks reasonable...
Criteria ActiveProject1 ActiveProject2 Past_Projects
Criteria1 yes no 5/10/5
Criteria2 yes yes 7/9/4
Criteria3 no yes 2/15/3
While I can't visualize what you're trying to do, one suggestion I would have is to use the ODS DOCUMENT and PROC DOCUMENT facility, or PROC REPORT.
You can in this way build your two separate tables that you like, then use PROC DOCUMENT to put them together so they show up in one place. This might suffice for what you're aiming to do.
If it doesn't, then PROC REPORT is probably more apt than PROC TABULATE when you are in some places summarizing and in other places not, if that's what you're trying to do. It allows limited data step functionality along with the summarization elements of the tabulation procs. I can't suggest a specific example because I don't understand what you're doing, but it may be the superior choice.
Short of using annotations, I have been unable to find a reasonable way to prevent my x-axis labels from overlapping when using a barchartparm in SAS. From the documentation, they clearly state that barcharts use a discrete axis and the other axis types such as time are not permissible for them. Although conceptually this makes sense it seems like an 'unnecessary' limitation to enforce as it leaves no control over the x-axis labeling as every discrete label will be printed.
Sample data:
data test;
format rpt_date date9.;
do rpt_date=date()-90 to date();
root = round(ranuni(1) *100,1);
output;
end;
run;
Define the chart template:
proc template;
define statgraph giddyup;
begingraph;
layout overlay;
barchartparm x=rpt_date y=root ;
endlayout;
endgraph;
end;
run;
Create the chart:
proc sgrender data=test template=giddyup;
run;
Result:
I tried to be duct-tape it and create a custom format for the x-axis that would 'blank-out' many of the values, and although the chart was produced, it stacked all the blanks together (??) and also produced a warning.
I've also tried using the alternate x2axisopts and setting the axis to secondary with no luck.
If I used a series chart I would be able to control the axis fine, but in my case the data is much easier to interpret as a barchart. Perhaps they needed to add additional options to the xaxisopts for barcharts.
The most frustrating thing here is that it's something that you can do in excel in 2 seconds, and to me seems like it would be a very common chart in excel, that is not easily reproducible in SAS!
EDIT: I also don't want to use proc gchart .
Ok now I feel silly. Turns out that histograms will achieve the same result nicely:
histogramparm x=rpt_date y=root ;
Still a valuable question I guess as I spent a lot of time googling for answers and could not find a solution.
Good thing I didn't want it horizontal...
This might be a weird question. I have a data set contains data like agree, neutral, disagree...for many questions. There is not so many observations so for some question, one or more options has frequency of 0, say neutral. When I run proc freq, since neutral shows up in that variable, the table does not contain a row for neutral. I end up with tables with different number of rows. I would like to know if there is a option to show these 0 frequency rows. I will also need to run proc gchart for the same data set, and I will run into the same problem for having different number of bars. Please help me on this. Thank you!
This depends on how exactly you are running your PROC FREQ. It has the sparse option, which tells it to create a value for every logical cell on the table when creating an output dataset; normally, while you would have a cell with a missing value (or zero) in a crosstab, if that is output to a dataset (which is vertical, ie each combination of x and y axis value are placed in one row) those rows are left off. Sparse makes sure that doesn't happen; and in a larger (n-dimensional) crosstab, it creates rows for every possible combination of every variable, even ones that don't occur in the data.
However, if you're just doing
proc freq data=mydata;
tables myvar;
run;
That won't help you, as SAS doesn't really have anything to go on to figure out what should be there.
For that, you have to use a class variable procedure. Proc Tabulate is one of such procedures, and is similar to Proc Freq in its syntax (sort of). You need to either use CLASSDATA on the proc statement, or PRINTMISS on the table statement. In the former case, you do not need to use a format, I don't believe. In the latter case (PRINTMISS), you need to create a format for your variable (if you don't already have one) that contains all levels of the data that you want to display (even if it's just an identity format, e.g. formatting character strings to identical character strings), and specify PRELOADFMT on the proc statement. See this man page for more details.