Customer Reviews

Professional SAS Programmer's Pocket Reference

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I found it's very convenient to have a small pocket size SAS "dictionary" around my desk - like you forget how to spell a word you refer to a dictionary, this one provides very comprehensive and concise coverage of "words" in SAS language. Don't expect to learn anything about SAS from this book just like you can't learn Chinese by reading a Chinese dictionary. But once you're pretty familiar with SAS and start to try something out, this one comes handy - it reminds you "proc content" should be "proc contents" in fact and there is a special format "SSN" to process SSN related issues efficiently. I wish this book could be thicker, providing more detailed entries for each "word". A reasonable expand from 190s pages to 300 pages will make it more useful but still can fit in my pocket.

A professional programmer of the dutch SAS institute advised me to buy two exemplars of this reference guide. Contents are great and easy to understand (although I am afraid that I rather prefer sas online doc), but the quality of the binding is terrible: after an estimated 30 searches in the guide, pages ware falling out of the manual. From this point of view, 9 bucks excl. shipping is a bad deal.

Frank

This is a good book to have available if you don't wish to take a look at one of SAS Institute's substantial publications or a reference manual published elsewhere. However, it isn't a guide I'd recommend to someone who isn't familiar with computer programming or SAS. It's best seen as a pocket dictionary of SAS programming - and it should be used as such.

I just got the 2nd edition printed in 1998. I agree with the previous reviewer who used an example about Chinese language, as I will explain later.

I have been using the SAS for some years and am curently a statistician mainly working with the SAS. Every page looks informative to me. I can learn new rules and possibilities even on the commands I have been using.

The advantage of this book for me is that it is small and highlights key information. It is like a summary book of the _SAS Language_, a thick reference book that I do not feel like browsing for leisure. The disadvantage would be same as how I feel about the _SAS Language_ book, that if we do not know what we want to know, then we will not be able to find it out. The index page is intended for experienced user.

SAS is powerful tool, but possesses a bizarre (to a programming snob) and inconsistent syntax. That being said, you won't be able to learn SAS from this book. However, you'll find this very useful as a quick reference to the options and canned routines. While it's not truly "pocket size," its size is compatible with my otherwise messy desktop.

The 4th edition includes changes to be seen in the upcoming SAS 9.0.

Not much to say except that this book is an outstanding reference tool. Updated for v9 it has basically everything you need in a pocket reference. It doesn't try to be a book or a guide or anything else, it is simply a very dense, well written, concise and accurate reference for SAS programmers. There is extremely useful information here and I refer to it often. There are many 'gotchas' in SAS and it's good to have a a handy tool like this to refer back to and double check when you're not sure about syntax or usage.

Definitely worth the meager price, and it should definitely be a part of any serious SAS programmers library.

I frequently purchase this book to give to new and experienced SAS programmers. It's nice to have a copy next to your computer so you can quickly look up options or keywords. Also all the informats and formats are listed for quick reference.
If you need complete command or proc information, then you probably want to look it up on the web. However, I have my copy dog-eared so I can quickly turn to what I want. Maybe one day I will memorize all the formats/functions (ha!)