Re: SAS Advanced Programming Exam for SAS 9: SAS Joke of the year. #9ALan ,
Lets keep this to straight SAS, I dont tell people what they should use in
SAS to produce the report, but rather I say here is what the report should
look like, here i sthe data set, here ar the specs, now go make it happen.
If your hirng a junior level programmer they should know the data step and
say proc sort, proc print, proc format. If your going after a Senior level
programmer the test should be harder and reflect more things like ODs,
macro, etc...
In your case you dont promote straight SAS solutions and that is great, but
a whole other market than a straight SAS programmer.
Toby Dunn
Comprimise is like telling a lie, it gets easier and easier. Each
comprimise you make, that becomes your standard.
Perfection doesnt exist, once you reach it, its not perfect anymore. It
means something else.
From: Alan Churchill <savian001@GMAIL.COM>
Reply-To: Alan Churchill <savian001@GMAIL.COM>
To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: SAS Advanced Programming Exam for SAS 9: SAS Joke of the year.
Date: Tue, 4 Sep 2007 15:54:31 -0600
Well Toby, let me ask something then. Since I am not an ODS fan and haven't
used proc report/tabulate for some time, would that be an automatic
disqualifier since you don't allow reference books or materials? SAS does
not provide tools that help me code ODS (except for EG) and therefore a
reference material is all I would need. Now, it's not like I haven't used
proc report (used it extensively at one time), ...
Re: SAS Advanced Programming Exam for SAS 9: SAS Joke of the year.I took the advanced exam this April because I wanted a relatively
systematic way of assessing my knowledge of SAS in a short time span.
For that purpose, it was worth it.
Since I learn SAS by doing new tasks, or re-doing old tasks in a new
way, I assume my knowledge of SAS is uneven, even though I am regarded
as productive, and frequently creative in using SAS to solve our group's
problems.
I passed the test, with lower subscores on the components that I
expected to be weakest on. I thought many of the questions made me
think about some fundamental, sometimes subtle, features of the
language. I did some guessing, but that was on my weaker topics. So
the exam results, in my view, reflected something real.
I agree, a prospective employer should not put much stock in SAS
certification exams. Many highly effective people are not good test
takers. Besides, this exam is a crude instrument. My score was
identical to a colleague who still regularly asks me for guidance in
finding solutions in SAS to specific problems. I probably know more SAS
than he does (and he is a good SAS programmer), but you wouldn't know
from the exam results.
As to version 9-specific questions, I don't recall whether there was
much material that was version 9 only. But I expected the test to be
more oriented to "advanced" concepts than to new features of version 9.
By the way, even though I passed, I can't get a SAS advanced certificate
-- because I haven't taken the...
Re: SAS Advanced Programming Exam for SAS 9: SAS Joke of the year. #3Okay, I think I need to weigh-in on this.
First, the exam is designed to test what you know about how SAS works.
I think it does a fair job at that. (I say so partly because I only
scored 89 on the exam. Now, I didn't prepare for the exam; I was really
testing the exam when I took it as opposed to using the exam to test my
skills.)
The exam doesn't know how well you can program. There is a big
difference between having a large vocabulary and knowing the rules of
grammar and knowing how to write. Similarly, there's a big difference
between knowing how SAS works and knowing how to program. The exam does
not test how well you can program.
That said, when I look for someone to hire that I don't know, I need
everything I can get to evaluate the candidate. Sure, it would be nice
if they brought a portfolio of their code so I could see what they can
write. That seldom happens, and when it does the code is often not
really written by the applicant.
So, I look for other things. An applicant often tells what they worked
on, but that too can be exaggerated.
What am I left with? Well, someone can program who doesn't know SAS,
but probably they won't be a very good SAS programmer. I'd rather have
the exam to judge than to not have the exam.
If I were to apply for a job where the employer didn't know me, I would
also want the certification to help them make the decision.
Oh, as for the version 9 questions, I remember finding several. Just
d...
Re: SAS Advanced Programming Exam for SAS 9: SAS Joke of the year. #8On Tue, 4 Sep 2007, Alan Churchill wrote:
> It seems that a test like this would toss me out of the pool from the
> get-go. Heck, maybe that's what the goal would be ;-]
Well then, maybe the rest of us might have a chance then :)
Given that I have not used SAS regularly in months, I would be hurting.
Hopefully, I would not be tossed immediately either.
Isn't one point of the test to allow a organization to call itself a
partner or some other distinction? Maybe to be listed among companies on
SI's websites?
Kevin
Kevin Viel, PhD
Post-doctoral fellow
Department of Genetics
Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research
San Antonio, TX 78227
...
Re: SAS Advanced Programming Exam for SAS 9: SAS Joke of the year. #5Good deal Bob, atleast that company was headed in the right direction IMO...
I have given such tests and taken them. I ussually give them a data set,
the specs I want them to follow, and a example of what I want the output to
look like. Then I tend to give them like 4 or 5 hours if they need it to
complete the project. In reallity they should be done in an hour or so.
The test should be challenging but not too challenging, and the solution
should involve a few data steps, procedures, and some type of reporting.....
Toby Dunn
Comprimise is like telling a lie, it gets easier and easier. Each
comprimise you make, that becomes your standard.
Perfection doesnt exist, once you reach it, its not perfect anymore. It
means something else.
From: Bob_Abelson@HGSI.COM
Reply-To: Bob_Abelson@HGSI.COM
To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: SAS Advanced Programming Exam for SAS 9: SAS Joke of the year.
Date: Tue, 4 Sep 2007 17:22:59 -0400
I interviewed at a company that gave a test where I had a half hour to
produce a very simple report using PROC REPORT. I was provided all the
manuals I wanted, but because I had used PROC REPORT before, I wanted none
of them. I finished in five minutes, and most people on SAS-L would be
able to beat that time.
Bob Abelson
HGSI
240 314 4400 x1374
bob_abelson@hgsi.com
"toby dunn" <tobydunn@HOTMAIL.COM>
Sent by: "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
09/04/2007 05:15 PM
Please respond to
"toby d...
Re: SAS Advanced Programming Exam for SAS 9: SAS Joke of the year. #4Ed ,
I still contend and stick with they should both be able to program and know
how SAS works. I prefer the intervewing company give a test, were the
person being interviewed is sat in front a laptop or desktop and told to
write code to solve some problems. No online help no books just the persona
nd the computer. This weeds out those who can code and those who cant, from
those who can you then talk to them about the code they wrote and you can
deduce those who understand how SAS works and thos who dont. The pool you
are left with are the qualified candidates atleast from a SAS perspective
and you can make your choice from there.
Toby Dunn
Comprimise is like telling a lie, it gets easier and easier. Each
comprimise you make, that becomes your standard.
Perfection doesnt exist, once you reach it, its not perfect anymore. It
means something else.
From: Ed Heaton <EdHeaton@WESTAT.COM>
Reply-To: Ed Heaton <EdHeaton@WESTAT.COM>
To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: SAS Advanced Programming Exam for SAS 9: SAS Joke of the year.
Date: Tue, 4 Sep 2007 16:52:16 -0400
Okay, I think I need to weigh-in on this.
First, the exam is designed to test what you know about how SAS works.
I think it does a fair job at that. (I say so partly because I only
scored 89 on the exam. Now, I didn't prepare for the exam; I was really
testing the exam when I took it as opposed to using the exam to test my
skills.)
The exam doesn't know how well you can program...
Re: SAS Advanced Programming Exam for SAS 9: SAS Joke of the year. #10I actually think you are straight-jacketing the interview for a senior
person. I would definitely look for someone who thought outside of the box.
That may be ways of doing things other than macros or ODS or else putting a
new spin on them. I ditched most of the macro language a decade ago, for
example.
As a hiring manager, I always went for creativity and not specific skills on
hand and was very pleased with my hires. But hey, I don't hire anymore so it
isn't something I have to face.
BTW, no client has ever asked me for certification nor have I been quizzed
on specific SAS knowledge. YMMV.
Alan
Alan Churchill
Savian
www.savian.net
-----Original Message-----
From: toby dunn [mailto:tobydunn@hotmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, September 04, 2007 7:04 PM
To: savian001@GMAIL.COM; SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: SAS Advanced Programming Exam for SAS 9: SAS Joke of the year.
ALan ,
Lets keep this to straight SAS, I dont tell people what they should use in
SAS to produce the report, but rather I say here is what the report should
look like, here i sthe data set, here ar the specs, now go make it happen.
If your hirng a junior level programmer they should know the data step and
say proc sort, proc print, proc format. If your going after a Senior level
programmer the test should be harder and reflect more things like ODs,
macro, etc...
In your case you dont promote straight SAS solutions and that is great, but
a whole other market than a straight SAS programmer.
To...
Re: SAS Advanced Programming Exam for SAS 9: SAS Joke of the year. #6I interviewed at a company that gave a test where I had a half hour to
produce a very simple report using PROC REPORT. I was provided all the
manuals I wanted, but because I had used PROC REPORT before, I wanted none
of them. I finished in five minutes, and most people on SAS-L would be
able to beat that time.
Bob Abelson
HGSI
240 314 4400 x1374
bob_abelson@hgsi.com
"toby dunn" <tobydunn@HOTMAIL.COM>
Sent by: "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
09/04/2007 05:15 PM
Please respond to
"toby dunn" <tobydunn@HOTMAIL.COM>
To
SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
cc
Subject
Re: SAS Advanced Programming Exam for SAS 9: SAS Joke of the year.
Ed ,
I still contend and stick with they should both be able to program and
know
how SAS works. I prefer the intervewing company give a test, were the
person being interviewed is sat in front a laptop or desktop and told to
write code to solve some problems. No online help no books just the
persona
nd the computer. This weeds out those who can code and those who cant,
from
those who can you then talk to them about the code they wrote and you can
deduce those who understand how SAS works and thos who dont. The pool you
are left with are the qualified candidates atleast from a SAS perspective
and you can make your choice from there.
Toby Dunn
Comprimise is like telling a lie, it gets easier and easier. Each
comprimise you make, that becomes your standard.
Perfection doesnt exist, once...
Re: SAS Advanced Programming Exam for SAS 9: SAS Joke of the year. #11Kevin,
Thank you for the nice words...I am sure I wouldn't have a chance on any
stat exam, BTW.
What I am good at is being in an absolute crisis and trying to get it solved
with no time on the clock. That is why I think in a quirky manner. When the
obvious isn't working, take a different path because there is simply no time
left. It's what I did at MCI, SAS, and now as an independent.
....and that skill will not be measured on a certification exam or plopping
me in front of a PC to hammer out an example SAS program.
For any candidate, I can pick up their technical level with a few questions
and watching their reactions.
Alan
Alan Churchill
Savian
www.savian.net
-----Original Message-----
From: SAS(r) Discussion [mailto:SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Kevin
Roland Viel
Sent: Tuesday, September 04, 2007 4:02 PM
To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: SAS Advanced Programming Exam for SAS 9: SAS Joke of the year.
On Tue, 4 Sep 2007, Alan Churchill wrote:
> It seems that a test like this would toss me out of the pool from the
> get-go. Heck, maybe that's what the goal would be ;-]
Well then, maybe the rest of us might have a chance then :)
Given that I have not used SAS regularly in months, I would be hurting.
Hopefully, I would not be tossed immediately either.
Isn't one point of the test to allow a organization to call itself a
partner or some other distinction? Maybe to be listed among companies on
SI's websites?
Kevin
Kevin ...
Re: SAS Advanced Programming Exam for SAS 9: SAS Joke of the year. #2jontugman,
Test preparation is akin to following a simple algorithm:
1. Evaluate the test and discover if it is worth taking.
2. If #1 evaluates false then go to exit.
3. Determine if your *test* knowledge of SAS is insufficient.
4. If #3 evaluates true, do the test preparation.
5. Pay the money.
6. Take the test.
7 Exit.
From your standpoint, the step of paramount importance is step #1. That is
where you mainly failed. From SAS' standpoint, only one step matters: #5.
This is the only reason the test was created in the first place.
The world would be a better place if all employers understood that as well.
However, some recruiters/HRers require the certificate as a CYA backup
should they accidentally hire a pure test-passer.
Fortunately, I have not seen many occurrences of this nature since the
inception of the boondoggle, perhaps because most candidates are almost
inevitably interviewed by people qualified in SAS better than HR. And most
qualified people saw the program for what it is even before its advent.
SAS-L is replete with numerous posts to prove it.
Needless to say, it does not imply in any way that any certificate-holder
has no more SAS behind the belt than the certificate can cover. Far from
that! Many fantastic real-world people have been forced into the thing by
their SAS partnership business needs, many have taken it just for the heck
of it because their employer would pay for it, etc.
My opposition to the thing as a matter of principle is based on t...
SAS Advanced Programming Exam for SAS 9: SAS Joke of the year.Sick joke, not funny.
You would have thought that adding the 9 tag to the exam would have
meant testing the ability of using version 9. Not so. The exam doesn't
test the ability of version 9. It doesn't even test the ability of
using SAS. It tests one's ability of guessing the right answer,
because on a lot of the questions that's all you can do.
We cannot take material out of the test centre, so I am relating these
issues from memory, but 42 is the answer to the Universe, and this one
did stick in my memory.
Question 42: Correct answer: None of the above. They have swapped the
value of one of the observations around and there is no option in the
A-D to do that.
At least two other questions return a different sort order to the
input, with no sort order in the options.
After coming across question 42, I almost walked out. But I had been
preparing for this exam for weeks, and I was determined to see it
through to the end. Plus I don't like throwing money away.
You might call me bitter: Failed the exam by 2%, that is just one
guess wrong. I normally have problems with multi-guess exams, the only
exception being IQ tests which I normally score quite high on. But as
with the IQ tests, this SAS advanced certification is totally
meaningless. I came across a thread written some years ago, which the
writers expressed the opinion that it doesn't count for anything at
all. I had already paid for the exam by then, but if I had read that I
wouldn't have p...
Re: SAS System Viewer 9.1 unable to open SAS datasets ( SAS 9.1.3)A question in return:
is your table from windows? compressed from another system?
and specially with personnel formats hard coded inside?
Andre
msiddu2000 a �crit :
> SAS System Viewer 9.1 was able to open datasets that were created by
> V8 engine (SAS 8.2), but is unable to open datasets that are created
> with V9 engine (SAS 9.1.3).
>
> Does this need SAS System Viewer to be upgraded ?
> or
> Something else needs to be done ?
>
>
--
Andr� WIELKI
INED (Institut National d'Etudes D�mographiques)
Service Informatique
133 Boulevard Davout 75980 Paris Cedex 20
m�l : wielki@ined.fr t�l : 33 (0) 1 56 06 21 54
...
Re: Reusing code from SAS Program in another SAS Program #7 1547527Hi Keith,
is it exactly the same code (a) or only the same structure but with different variable names in it (b) ?
(a) you may save the "IF code" in a separate member (let's say IFcode) and simply %INCLUDE that
member within
your various data stes.
FILENAME xxx
FILENAME xxx 'a.b.c.' DISP=shr;
DATA ...
SET ...
%INCLUDE xxx(IFcode);
run;
(b) you could use the same technique but with macro logic in order to set the variable names
dynamically before including IFcode
does this help ?
Regards Roland
-----Original Message-----
From: SA...
Re: Reusing code from SAS Program in another SAS Program #7 647546Ian Whitlock wrote:
> %INC is neither a macro nor a macro instruction. It is one of a
> few old SAS commands that begin with a %-sign and predate the
> current macro language.
%RUN and %LIST are two others; is that a complete list?
The MACRO statement is also not disabled by OPTIONS NOMACRO, but it doesn't
start with a percent sign.
--
Jack Hamilton
Oakland, California
...
Re: SAS programming and SAS/BI<div>Auto..,</div>
<div> </div>
<div> </div>
<div>>From what I've read, it hasn't been to clear what all<BR>>is involved with SAS/BI in terms SAS programming. So I take it<BR>>there's really isn't much programming involved.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>IMO and IME:</div>
<div>Yes and No; but really somewhere in between. One reason for the confusion is that SAS BI is a number of produ...
Re: SAS 9 and SAS 8I suggest that you look at the SAS web site
http://support.sas.com/documentation/whatsnew/index.html
Nat Wooding
Environmental Specialist III
Dominion, Environmental Biology
4111 Castlewood Rd
Richmond, VA 23234
Phone:804-271-5313, Fax: 804-271-2977
pausha
<pausha1@GMAIL.CO
M> To
Sent by: "SAS(r) SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Discussion" cc
<SAS-L@LISTSERV.U
GA.EDU> Subject
SAS 9 and SAS 8
11/20/2008 03:28
PM
Please respond to
pausha
<pausha1@GMAIL.CO
M>
Could someone send me the papers or articles that gives the
differences between sas 8 and sas 9 and new function and changes in
sas 9.
Thanks
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This electronic message contains
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does not in any case represent a firm ENERGY COMMODITY bid or offer
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by anyone else is unauthorized. If you are not the intended
recipient, any disclosure, copyi...
Re: Running SAS programs from within a SAS programKeith,
You can use a series of %include statements naming the programs in the order
you want to call them in.
%include "drive:\your_folder\program name.txt" ;
Mah-J
M. Soobader, PhD
Principal consultant
STATWORKS
www.statworks.com
-----Original Message-----
From: SAS(r) Discussion [mailto:SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf Of
Keith W. Larson
Sent: Friday, November 18, 2005 10:32 PM
To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Running SAS programs from within a SAS program
Dear All,
I have several small(ish) SAS programs that convert
and format DBF files. Thanks to all who helped solve...
Re: Running a SAS program within a SAS program%include()
On Mon, Apr 21, 2008 at 12:55 PM, Kathleen Santos
<flowerpotcat@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I would like to combine multi years of data into one. Each year has a
> particular data set and a particular program to create a SAS dataset.
> However, not all programs are the same (e.g. variable names may change
> throughout the years).
>
> What I would like to do is to create one program that would call on the
> other programs to create SAS datasets. Then I'll integrate them together and
> do whatever I it is I need to do.
>
> I hope someone can help me.
>
> Thanks.
>
> Kathleen
>
--
===============================
WenSui Liu
ChoicePoint Precision Marketing
Phone: 678-893-9457
Email : wensui.liu@choicepoint.com
Blog : statcompute.spaces.live.com
===============================
...
Simulator for SAS Base Programming for SAS(r) 9 Certification ExamHere's a sneak-peek at the upcoming SAS Certification exam simulator and
reviewer:
http://sas2themax.com/blogs/
Requirements for Beta testers:
o must be at least SAS Base Programming certified
o must have a license to the SAS Online Tutor (that came with SAS 8.2 or
later)
o preferably a SAS book or SUGI author/presentor (optional)
Happy New Year to all!
Regards, Audi
http://sas2themax.com
...
Re: Running a SAS program within a SAS program #2Kathleen
Based on your subject, my immediate impulse was %inlude() where you put a
fileref in the quotes. However, I think you want to do something else. You
say that you have individual programs that produce a set for each year. Do
you store these sets somewhere or do you run the programs when you want
data for a given year. I would suggest that you first get a collection of
these yearly sets and run a contents on each one. Then, write a program
similar to
Data mylib.combined;
set
mylib.year1(rename = (Dates = Date ....))
mylib.year2(rename= (Sdates=Date....))
.....
;
The idea would be to get rid of the variations in the variable names. You
could simply copy in the individual programs into one honking big program
and keep running this until you get a uniform combined set but you will use
a lot of machine cycles doing this. Assuming that you have to make several
passes at the data in order to get things right, I would work from stored
data sets where all you are doing is changing the rename statements.
Good luck
Nat Wooding
Environmental Specialist III
Dominion, Environmental Biology
4111 Castlewood Rd
Richmond, VA 23234
Phone:804-271-5313, Fax: 804-271-2977
Kathleen Santos
<flowerpotcat@GMA
IL.COM> To
Sent by: "SAS(r) SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Discussion" cc
<SAS-...
Re: Can a SAS program call another SAS program> From: David Fickbohm
> I am writing a report that counts the number of widgets produced by
> partners. I have a small routine that finds the partners id
> number and
> name. Obviously I could copy this code into my program and
> execute it. I was wondering if there was a more elegant way
> of "Calling" a SAS program
> from within a SAS program.
> I am running SAS 8.1 in windows.
still!?!?
surely that is a typo: 9.1? i.e.: -The- 9.1==9.1.3
include it:
- - - subRoutineX.sas - - -
*...;
- - - subRoutineX.sas end - - -
- - - autoexec.sas - - -
filen...
Re: Running a SAS program within a SAS program #3Kathleen,
You can use %INCLUDE in a SAS program to call other SAS programs.
Jack Clark
Research Analyst
Center for Health Program Development and Management
University of Maryland, Baltimore County
-----Original Message-----
From: SAS(r) Discussion [mailto:SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
Kathleen Santos
Sent: Monday, April 21, 2008 12:55 PM
To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Running a SAS program within a SAS program
Hello,
I would like to combine multi years of data into one. Each year has a
particular data set and a particular program to create a SAS dataset.
However, not all programs are the same (e.g. variable names may change
throughout the years).
What I would like to do is to create one program that would call on the
other programs to create SAS datasets. Then I'll integrate them together
and
do whatever I it is I need to do.
I hope someone can help me.
Thanks.
Kathleen
...
Re: Converting from SAS 5 to SAS 9 #9 641267I did a little googling tonight and came across some SAS faqs about
converting V5 files to V6. It seems that Proc V5toV6 was available on most
platforms but not on the pc. However, there is supposed to be a V5 engine
available that will allow SAS V6 to read a V5 file.
Nat
...
Re: What r the data types in SAS? in Base SAS , and SAS SQL> From: Amar Mundankar
> Sent: Tuesday, July 21, 2009 8:10 AM
> To: sas-l@uga.edu
> Subject: What r the data types in SAS? in Base SAS , and SAS SQL
>
> Hi all,
> What are the different data types in Base SAS and SAS SQL??
character, lengths from 1 to 32,000+
numeric: lengths from 2 to 8
dates are a subtype of numeric
and are identified by their date, datetime, or time formats
the new proc TSPL (Table Server Processing Language)
supports ANSI data types: bigint, tinyint, etc.
http://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/tsag/30878/HTML/default/a003
065339.htm
http://s...