Section 1.8: Resources for Learning SAS Three of the best tools to learn SAS include: * Training: Books by Users and SAS training manuals are abundant (see below) * SAS-L: questions and answers to many common problems * Mentors: study programs developed by experienced users SAS Resources on the Internet Internet sites with good examples or even short courses on SAS are easily found. Go to a search engine (e.g., yahoo, google, altavista, etc.) and search for SAS, statistics, or some other keyword related to the topic of interest. The following URLs are only a small selection of what you may find: http://statsoft.nih.gov/training/crsnotes/html/FSPClass.htm http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/sas/modules/ An online tutorial for learning SAS for Windows (version 8.2) can be found at: http://www.utexas.edu/cc/stat/tutorials/sas8/sas8.html You can find answers to frequently asked questions at a SAS site: http://support.sas.com/techsup/faq/products.html The following site has comprehensive list of many websites about SAS: http://www.prochelp.com An on-line document that is continually updated with new information called SAS PROGRAMMING AND USAGE HINTS consists of several chapters with sub-sections on various topics of the SAS System are found at: http://www.uoregon.edu/~robinh/sas.html Proceedings in pdf format from the annual SAS User Group International (SUGI) conferences (Nos. 22-29 held in the years 1997-2004) may be viewed through your browser (requires Acrobat 5.0) are available at: http://support.sas.com/usergroups/sugi/proceedings/index.html Papers on specific topics presented at SUGI meetings can be researched at: http://www.lexjansen.com/sugi/ This page allows you to type in keywords to search for relevant articles. Several region SAS user groups have web sites for proceedings from past conferences; for one try the NESUG (2004): http://www.nesug.org/html/Proceedings/nesug04.pdf SAS Manuals and Documentation The following link from the SAS Institute to bookmark is: http://support.sas.com/documentation/onlinedoc/index.html which directs you to SAS documentation on SAS 8.2, SAS 9.1, SAS 9.1.2, SAS 9.1.3, a host of "What's new in this version" notes, supplemental documentation on SAS products installation documentation, and more. Specifically, you can find documentation for Version 9.1.3 at two SAS web sites. Another site to add to your browser's "Favorites" is user-friendly in the sense that it allows you to search the table of contents for specific topics and then select links for further information. http://support.sas.com/onlinedoc/913/docMainpage.jsp The following site provides the actual contents of various SAS manuals in PDF format which you can browse or print as needed. http://support.sas.com/documentation/onlinedoc/91pdf/index_913.html You must have Adobe Acrobat Reader 6.0 or later to view or print these documents. Please note, the entire contents of each manual are place in one document -- some of them have 1000's of pages (e.g., the STAT manual alone has over 5000!) so be judicious and print only the pages you need. These manuals are also available for purchase. You can now read documentation for the new and revised Version 9.2 procedures sorted either by name or by product at: http://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/allprodsproc/61869/HTML/default/a003229772.htm The individual manuals (the "white" books for Version 6 and "blue" books for version 8) took up most of the available space on a moderate size bookcase shelf, plus they were heavy and laborious to find a topic of interest. To alleviate the need to read through large books, SAS Version 8.2 documentation continues to be available to University of Oregon users at: http://sas.uoregon.edu/sashtml/main.htm The SAS Institute also has documentation available online for Version 8 which can be found at: http://v8doc.sas.com/sashtml/ You may add any of these pages to your "Favorites" in a web browser for fast and easy reference. A master index is available on the University site so you can locate just about any topic, procedure, or keyword quickly. A few of the most helpful manuals for all versions of SAS include: Introductory Guide - Assumes you're a beginner, but that you have basic knowledge about using a computer on which SAS runs (UNIX, VMS, or WINDOWS). * SAS Introductory Guide (Version 6) Usage - Assumes you have at least introductory knowledge of SAS. It contains many excellent examples and descriptions of techniques. Usage manuals are difficult to use effectively until you gain familiarity with the system. * SAS Language Reference, Vols. 1 and 2 (Version 8) * SAS Procedures Guide, Vols. 1 and 2 (Version 8) * SAS Language and Procedures (Version 6) Statistics and Econometrics. It assumes working knowledge of the DATA step and of the statistical procedure to be applied to your data. * SAS Stat User's Guide, Vols. 1, 2, and 3 (Version 8) * ETS User's Guide, Second Ed. (Version 6) Many more manuals on specialized topics are available from the SAS Institute (also in the Computing Center's documents room) depending on specific tools you need including: * SAS System for Regression * SAS System for Linear Models, 4th Ed. - Littel * A Step-by-Step Approach to using Univariate and Multivariate Statistics - Hutchinson * Categorical Data Analysis, 2nd Ed, - Stokes, Davis, and Koch * SAS System for Mixed Models, 2nd Ed. - Littel, Milliken, Stroup, Wolfinger * SAS Guide to Problem Solving and Error Messages The companion for the platform you're using (e.g. Windows, Unix, VMS) is also quite helpful, as are the guides to SQL, Macro, REPORT, TABULATE, and other products describing STAT or GRAPH procedures. The home page for SAS publications is: http://www.sas.com/apps/pubscat/welcome.jsp From this site you can easily locate SAS manuals and books on many topics written by users (Books By Users) with the search feature. "SAS Course Notes" are good resources to know and are interspersed in the following list (among others): http://www.sas.com/apps/pubscat/booklist.jsp?attr=product&val=Base+SAS Books: SAS Learning Resources The following resources are good "getting started" guides and introductions to SAS: Lora D. Delviche and Susan J. Slaughter. "The Little SAS Book: A Primer". (3rd edition). [Note: It has important new material related to version 9.1 and is an excellent introduction to get you up and running with SAS.] Cody, R. P. and Smith, J. K., Applied Statistics and the SAS Programming Language, Fourth Edition, Prentice-Hall, New York, 1997. Aster, Rick and Seidman, Rhena, Professional SAS Programming Secrets, Windcrest, 1991. [Note: It is practically the only one treating SAS as a general programming language.] Frank C. DiIorio. "SAS Applications Programming: A Gentle Introduction" SAS-L Newsgroup The SAS-L newsgroup list is a great resource to share knowledge of SAS applications with other users. To subscribe to SAS-L, send the following message to the listserv at: LISTSERV@UGA.CC.UGA.EDU with the text of the message: Subscribe SAS-L Be aware that you will probably receive 50-75 messages a day if you add your address to their list so your INBOX is likely to fill up rapidly. You can also read the messages posted each day from the news groups servers on oregon, darkwing, or gladstone by adding: comp.soft-sys.sas You can also check the SAS list archives and search for topics: http://www.listserv.uga.edu/archives/sas-l.html Other URLs for learning SAS http://www.sas.com/techsup/intro.html [SAS technical support] http://www.sconsig.com/ [Charles Patridge's SAS site] http://www.pwcons.com/Tips/index.html [PW Consulting's SAS Tips] http://www.yorku.ca/dept/psych/lab/sas/ [SAS Information Guides] How to Reference SAS in Reports and other Documents http://www.sas.com/presscenter/guidelines.html The proper citations for SAS publications can be found on the copyright page of the individual work.