The Little SAS Book: A Primer, Third Edition (Paperback)

~ Lora D. Delwiche (Author), Susan J. Slaughter (Author) "Many software applications are either menu driven, or command driven ( enter a command-see the result)..." (more)
Key Phrases: power yac, next data line, using list input, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Access, Summarizing Your Data (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Getting started with SAS is easy with The Little SAS Book. This friendly, easy-to-read guide gently introduces you to the most commonly used features of SAS software plus a whole lot more! The book has been revised to include concepts of the Output Delivery System; the STYLE= option in the PRINT, REPORT, and TABULATE procedures; ODS HTML, RTF, PRINTER, and OUTPUT destinations; PROC REPORT; more on PROC TABULATE; exporting data; and the colon modifier for informats. You'll find clear and concise explanations of basic SAS concepts (such as DATA and PROC steps), inputting data, modifying and combining data sets, summarizing and presenting data, basic statistical procedures, and debugging SAS programs. Each topic is presented in a self-contained, two-page layout complete with examples and graphics. This format enables new users to get up and running quickly, while the examples allow you to type in the program and see it work!

About the Author

Lora D. Delwiche brings over 20 years of expertise in working with SAS software to this edition. Lora enjoys teaching people about SAS software and likes solving challenging problems using SAS. Her experience in working with users from many different disc iplines prompted her to write a book proving that SAS is "not hard to learn."

Susan J. Slaughter discovered SAS software in graduate school, over 20 years ago. Since then she has used SAS in a variety of business and academic settings. She now works as a consultant through her company, Avocet Solutions. Her experience managing larg e databases, teaching SAS software classes, and writing about SAS inspired her to write a book that is both informative and fun to read.

Product Details

• Paperback: 360 pages
• Publisher: SAS Publishing; 3rd edition (October 15, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590473337
• ISBN-13: 978-1590473337
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (52 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #34,283 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book - but not for everyone, August 25, 2005

By	H. Mcdonnell "jockmcdock" (Netherlands) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I came to SAS with many years as a statistician (using STATA, SPSS, GLIM, BMDP and other packages) and as a programmer (Delphi, C, Unix shell, FoxPro etc). I recently changed jobs and had to learn SAS asap. My job currently involves data 'manipulation'. I don't mean that in any negative sense, just that I have to read the data in, perform lots of calculations, merge data, transpose data, check data etc etc. It's very important that I don't lose data in the process and also that I don't create (rubbish) data either.

I bought this book to get me up to speed with SAS. I inherited some pretty complex procedures from my predecessor which I have to adapt and, to some degree, rewrite for other data sets. It was a very formidable challenge, despite my experience.

This book is excellent. The presentation is clean and clear. The two-page format is brilliant. Small enough for you to grasp the basic concept without too much difficulty but large enough to equip you to delve into SAS help if you have to (an action I'd recommend you don't do unless you have too).

Downside? For me, none. Others have mentioned that the coverage of the statistical procedures is limited. This is particularly so if you receive your data pre-packaged and you don't have to do much data preparation. But the number of SAS statistical procedures and all variations therein is so large that you couldn't even begin to cover them in a book this size. Personally, I consider what they DO cover to be logical and sufficient for most beginners. There are other books which might be more appropriate for those who seek more information on statistical procedures.

Some people have suggested the chapter on data input is overdone. While it was very interesting to see how SAS could read ASCII files apparently written by someone on speed, I'm not convinced that input on that level is very relevant now. Much of this chapter could be relegated to an appendix.

Others have complained about the lack of exercises. Including exercises (and their solutions) would have seriously blown out this book. And let's face it, exercises only give you a taste of the possibilities. But you can easily make up your own exercises - and it's probably a better way to learn. Want to learn how PROC TRANSPOSE (a slightly tricky, not necessarily intuitive procedure for beginners) works? Create a few simple data sets and explore the options. Easy!

I wonder why it's called 'The **LITTLE** SAS Book". Presumably, in its earlier incarnations, it was smaller, but it's now 300+ pages long and contains little dross. Qua size and qua content, its not little, it's just the right size.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Intro to SAS, December 30, 2004

By	Home Theater Family - See all my reviews

This book is a primer - it's own title indicates it as such. A primer is what you give to people to get them familiar with something beforehand. SAS is very powerful but it is not intuitive to use - a la Excel. If you haven't used SAS before, reading over this book is a great way to get familiar with it and a nice reference to have for someone new to SAS programming. I learned how to use SAS from this book and the book covering empirical financial research. The disappointed people here are expecting a bit much from something called a 'primer' or simply don't find SAS easy to use. Neither of these shortcomings are the fault of this work. If you've never used SAS or are very new to it, this book is quite good - and that's what a Primer is for.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Enough to get you started, but not much else, March 24, 2008

By	Genevieve Hayes (Australia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

During my first week on the job as an actuarial analyst, I got handed a copy of this book and told to teach myself SAS from it. I read every page of it and worked through every example, and by the end of the week I understood the basics of using SAS, but not much else. This is an excellent book for someone who has never seen SAS before in their life; it assumes no prior knowledge and teaches everything from scratch. However, your average SAS user isn't going to be using this program to simply calculate means and variances, and this is where this book fails. The most complex statistics this book covers are simple things, like means and variances, and it is necessary to purchase further manuals if you are interested in learning more advanced techniques. By all means, buy this book, but be aware that it is likely that you will need to buy other books to accompany it.