Philip R. Holland

SAS to R to SAS

The aim of this chapter is to describe one method of passing SAS data from SAS to R, using R to produce a graph, and then passing that graph back to SAS for inclusion in an ODS document. The R programming language provides a wide range of graphical functionality, some of which is unavailable or time-consuming to achieve in SAS—either in SAS/GRAPH or ODS Graphics. The method described here makes this functionality available to SAS applications. You can also adapt these basic principles to create character-based reports using R for inclusion in SAS reports.

SAS Programming and Data Visualization Techniques

SAS Programming and Data Visualization Techniques: A Power User’s Guide brings together a wealth of ideas about strategic and tactical solutions to everyday situations experienced when transferring, extracting, processing, analyzing, and reporting the valuable data you have at your fingertips. Best, you can achieve most of the solutions using the SAS components you already license, meaning that this book’s insights can keep you from throwing money at problems needlessly. Author Philip Holland explains techniques—through code samples and example—that will enable you to increase your knowledge of all aspects of SAS programming, improve your coding productivity, and interface SAS with other programs. He also provides an expert’s overview of Graph Templates, which was recently moved into Base SAS. You will learn to create attractive, standardized, reusable, and platformindependent graphs—both statistical and non-statistical—to help you and your business users explore, visualize, and capitalize on your company’s data.

Introduction to Graph Templates and ODS Graphics Procedures

You will see a number of new terms mentioned throughout this section of the book. STATGRAPH is the name of the template definition used for a graph template in PROC TEMPLATE, in the same way STYLE and TABLE are the definitions used for style and table templates. Graph template Language (GTL) is a subset of the PROC TEMPLATE statements designed specifically with graphics in mind; it is similar to other template subsets but has some unique features.

ODS GRAPHICS Statement

When using the SG procedures—PROC SGPLOT, PROC SGPANEL, PROC SGSCATTER, and PROC SGRENDER—the ODS GRAPHICS statement is optional. However, doing so can change a number of important features of the output image (such as the size and file format); and with new SAS versions, ODS Graphics supports new image formats. In particular, this chapter examines the EMF image-file format in more detail, because it changes significantly across SAS versions.

Converting SAS/GRAPH Plots to ODS Graphics

This chapter compares the output from the most commonly used SAS code for producing plots and charts using SAS/GRAPH and ODS Graphics. Each ODS Graphics program is rated as follows:

How to Use Lookup Tables Effectively

There are many different ways to combine small lookup tables with larger SAS data sets. This chapter shows how to use the most appropriate and efficient method, depending on the circumstances.

Generating Graph Templates

The previous chapter showed how to generate graph templates while running PROC SGPLOT and SGSCATTER code. These procedures can generate graph templates on all platforms that support them (for example, Windows, Unix, Linux, and z/OS). However, these procedures are not interactive and do not allow you to see the template output directly. If you have access to an interactive SAS environment, the ODS Graphics Designer provides an interactive environment in which you can develop a graph template incrementally and see the current status of the template throughout its development.

Converting SAS/GRAPH Annotate to ODS Graphics

The previous chapter described how many standard SAS/GRAPH plots can be converted easily to ODS Graphics by using simple PROC SGPLOT or SGPANEL code. SAS/GRAPH Annotate code would seem, at first glance, to be much more difficult to convert to ODS Graphics; but by making use of its layering features, many Annotate plots can be replicated in a flexible and repeatable way.

Running SAS Programs in SAS Studio or Enterprise Guide

SAS Studio (previous known as SAS Web Editor) was introduced in SAS 9.4 M1 as an alternative programming environment to Enterprise Guide (EG) and interactive SAS (Display Manager System [DMS]). SAS Studio is different than EG and DMS in many ways. As a programmer, I currently use EG to help me code, test, maintain, and organize my SAS programs. I have interactive SAS installed on my PC, but I still prefer to write my programs in EG because I know it will save my log and output whenever I run a program—even if that program crashes and takes the SAS session with it! So should I now be using SAS Studio instead, and should you be using it too?

Customizing Graph Templates

Previous chapters have discussed a variety of methods for generating graph templates. However, most of the generated templates are usable only for specific applications, rather than for multiple uses. This chapter goes more deeply into the structure and syntax of graph templates, so you can update the generated templates to make them more generally applicable.