SAS Institute has hundreds of statistical analysis system products, so a partial list of the ones you might run will help you know which one to use for your job.

The tasks in SAS Enterprise Guide and SAS Add-In for Microsoft Office create SAS programs that call on SAS procedures. Having a list of those procedures and being able to find them quickly in SAS Enterprise Guide will boost your efficiency.

Selecting the correct SAS product

SAS Institute offers hundreds of SAS products, and sometimes it’s difficult to decide which tool you should use for your work. Here is a partial list of SAS products you might encounter and who uses them for what purpose. As a SAS customer, you might use just one of these products or a few of them; if you’re really lucky, you might use them all.

SAS, or the SAS System

The SAS System is the original SAS product that customers have used in one form or another for more than 30 years, on systems ranging from big mainframes to laptops. It’s also known as Display Manager (the name of the windowing interface), or Base SAS, or just plain old SAS. The SAS System is primarily a tool for people comfortable with writing SAS programs. It contains the data processing and analytics engine that is at the core of most SAS products.

SAS Enterprise Guide

SAS Enterprise Guide provides a modern, easy-to-use interface to much of the power of SAS. SAS Enterprise Guide is used by SAS programmers, business analysts (who might or might not have programming skills), and statisticians. It’s a Microsoft Windows application that can connect to SAS; you can use it to drive the SAS analytics engine running on a mainframe, UNIX, or other remote machines as a server application. SAS Enterprise Guide is like a general store for SAS, where you can get a little bit of everything that SAS has to offer.

SAS Data Integration Studio

SAS Data Integration Studio is used to create and maintain data warehouses and data marts, which are specialized stores of data that have been prepared for effective reporting and analytics. Data experts, such as database administrators and IT specialists — people who support other folks who have to create reports — use SAS Data Integration Studio. Like SAS Enterprise Guide, this is a client application that runs on your desktop and provides an intuitive user interface, but it can connect to SAS and databases that run on machines all over your organization.

SAS Enterprise Miner

SAS Enterprise Miner is used for data mining, or investigating patterns in large amounts of data. Statisticians and professional modelers use SAS Enterprise Miner to segment data and create descriptive or predictive models. For example, a bank might use such a model to predict how likely you are to respond to a certain credit card offering. If your data profile is similar enough to others who have responded to similar offers, SAS Enterprise Miner would produce a model that indicates you’re worth sending the offer to. Hello, Platinum card!

SAS Add-In for Microsoft Office

Some people spend most of their working days working with a Microsoft Office application such as Excel or PowerPoint. SAS Add-In for Microsoft Office lets you open SAS data sources and run SAS analyses without ever having to leave the comfy world of your spreadsheet or slideshow. SAS Add-In for Microsoft Office is used by business analysts who don’t really need to know anything about SAS programming but need the answers that SAS can provide.

SAS Web Report Studio

All business intelligence software vendors must have a Web-based reporting product, and SAS Web Report Studio fits that bill. SAS Web Report Studio allows you to create and distribute reports to anyone who needs them, all without leaving your Web browser.

SAS Forecast Studio

SAS Forecast Studio analyzes time-based data and forecasting future trends and events. It’s like a crystal ball, only better! SAS Forecast Studio is used by professional modelers or statisticians who understand concepts such as seasonality and intermittent demand models. However, no SAS programming is required!

JMP

JMP is a standalone, highly visual analytics product. It runs on Microsoft Windows, Apple Macintosh, or Linux-based computers. JMP is sometimes packaged with SAS and can work with other SAS products, but most often it’s used by researchers, engineers, and quality-control experts who want advanced analytics without a big software footprint.

SAS procedures and locations in the SAS Enterprise Guide

The tasks in SAS Enterprise Guide and SAS Add-In for Microsoft Office cover a wide range of SAS capabilities.

These SAS tasks are easy-to-use interfaces that create SAS programs to do their work. The programs call on SAS procedures, where each procedure represents a specialized capability. And to make it even more interesting, SAS (the company) provides these procedures in product bundles, which must be separately licensed for customers to use them.

With all of this at work, it can be tricky to keep track of which tasks use which procedures that need which SAS products.

The following table lays it all out for you: all the tasks, how to find them in the menu, which procedures they use, and which SAS products are involved.

Task
and
Menu Location
SAS Procedures
and
SAS Products
Import Data
(Excel)File→Import Data
DATA step; IMPORT

Base SAS

Open
Information MapFile→Open
DATA step

Base SAS

Linear Models

Tasks→ANOVA

GLM

SAS/STAT

Mixed Models

Tasks→ANOVA

MIXED

SAS/STAT

Nonparametric
One-Way
ANOVATasks→ANOVA
NPAR1WAY

SAS/STAT

One-Way
ANOVATasks→ANOVA
ANOVA; GPLOT

SAS/STAT; SAS/GRAPH

t Test

Tasks→ANOVA

TTEST

SAS/STAT

CDF Plots

Tasks–
>Capability

CAPABILITY

SAS/QC

Histograms

Tasks–
>Capability

CAPABILITY

SAS/QC

P-P Plots

Tasks–
>Capability

CAPABILITY

SAS/QC

Probability
PlotsTasks→Capability
CAPABILITY

SAS/QC

Q-Q Plots

Tasks–
>Capability

CAPABILITY

SAS/QC

Box Chart

Tasks→Control
Charts

SHEWHART

SAS/QC

c Chart

Tasks→Control
Charts

SHEWHART

SAS/QC

Individual
Measurements
ChartTasks→Control
Charts
SHEWHART

SAS/QC

Mean and
Range ChartTasks→Control
Charts
SHEWHART

SAS/QC

Mean and
Standard
Deviation ChartTasks→Control
Charts
SHEWHART

SAS/QC

np Chart

Tasks→Control
Charts

SHEWHART

SAS/QC

p Chart

Tasks→Control
Charts

SHEWHART

SAS/QC

u Chart

Tasks→Control
Charts

SHEWHART

SAS/QC

Append Table

Tasks→Data

SQL

Base SAS

Compare Data

Tasks→Data

COMPARE

Base SAS

Create Format

Tasks→Data

FORMAT

Base SAS

Data Set
AttributesTasks→Data
DATASETS

Base SAS

Delete Data
Sets and
FormatsTasks→Data
DELETE

Base SAS

Download Data
Files to PCTasks→Data
SQL

Base SAS

Filter and Sort

Tasks→Data

SQL

Base SAS

Query Builder

Tasks→Data

SQL

Base SAS

Random Sample

Tasks→Data

SURVEYSELECT

SAS/STAT

Rank

Tasks→Data

RANK

Base SAS

Sort Data

Tasks→Data

SORT

Base SAS

Split Columns

Tasks→Data

TRANSPOSE

Base SAS

Stack Columns

Tasks→Data

TRANSPOSE

Base SAS

Standardize
DataTasks→Data
STANDARD

Base SAS

Table Analysis

Tasks→Data

FREQ

Base SAS

Transpose

Tasks→Data

TRANSPOSE

Base SAS

Upload Data to
SAS ServerTasks→Data
SQL

Base SAS

Import from
SPSSTasks→Data
IMPORT

SAS/ACCESS
Interface to PC File
Formats

Import from JMP

Tasks→Data

IMPORT

SAS/ACCESS
Interface to PC File
Formats

Import from
StataTasks→Data
IMPORT

SAS/ACCESS
Interface to PC File
Formats

Characterize Data Wizard

Tasks→Describe

CONTENTS;
UNIVARIATE;
FREQSAS/STAT
Distribution
AnalysisTasks→Describe
UNIVARIATE

SAS/STAT

List Data

Tasks→Describe

PRINT

Base SAS

List Report

Tasks→Describe

REPORT

Base SAS

One-Way
FrequenciesTasks→Describe
FREQ

Base SAS

Summary Statistics

Tasks→Describe

MEANS

Base SAS

Summary Tables

Tasks→Describe

TABULATE

Base SAS

Area Plot

Tasks→Graph

GPLOT

SAS/GRAPH

Bar Chart

Tasks→Graph

GCHART

SAS/GRAPH

Bar-Line Chart

Tasks→Graph

GBARLINE

SAS/GRAPH

Box Plot

Tasks→Graph

GPLOT

SAS/GRAPH

Bubble Plot

Tasks→Graph

GPLOT

SAS/GRAPH

Contour Plot

Tasks→Graph

GCONTOUR

SAS/GRAPH

Create Map
Feature TableTasks→Graph
GPROJECT

SAS/GRAPH

Donut Chart

Tasks→Graph

GCHART

SAS/GRAPH

Line Plot

Tasks→Graph

GPLOT

SAS/GRAPH

Map Graph

Tasks→Graph

GMAP

SAS/GRAPH

Pie Chart

Tasks→Graph

GCHART

SAS/GRAPH

Radar Chart

Tasks→Graph

GRADAR

SAS/GRAPH

Scatter Plot

Tasks→Graph

GPLOT; G3D

SAS/GRAPH

Surface Plot

Tasks→Graph

G3D

SAS/GRAPH

Tile Chart

Tasks→Graph

GTILE

SAS/GRAPH

Model Scoring

Tasks→Model Scoring

NONE

SAS Enterprise Miner

Canonical
CorrelationTasks→
Multivariate
CANCORR

SAS/STAT

Cluster Analysis

Tasks→
Multivariate

CLUSTER, TREE,
FASTCLUSSAS/STAT
Correlations

Tasks→
Multivariate

CORR

Base SAS

Discriminant Analysis

Tasks→
Multivariate

DISCRIM

SAS/STAT

Factor Analysis

Tasks→
Multivariate

FACTOR

SAS/STAT

Principal
ComponentsTasks→Multivariate
PRINCOMP

SAS/STAT

Pareto Chart

Tasks→Pareto

PARETO

SAS/QC

Generalized Linear
ModelsTasks→
Regression
GENMOD

SAS/STAT

Linear Regression

Tasks→
Regression

REG

SAS/STAT

Logistic Regression

Tasks→
Regression

LOGISTIC

SAS/STAT

Nonlinear
RegressionTasks→
Regression
NLIN

SAS/STAT

Life Tables

Tasks→
Survival Analysis

LIFETEST

SAS/ETS

Proportional
HazardsTasks→
Survival Analysis
PHREG

SAS/ETS

ARIMA Modeling
and ForecastingTasks→
Time Series
ARIMA

SAS/ETS

Basic Forecasting

Tasks→
Time Series

FORECAST

SAS/ETS

Create Time
Series DataTasks→
Time Series
TIMESERIES

SAS/ETS

Forecast Studio
Create Project
WizardTasks→
Time Series
Forecast Studio

SAS
Forecast Server

Forecast Studio
Open Project WizardTasks→Time
Series
Forecast Studio

SAS
Forecast Server

Forecast Studio
Override WizardTasks→Time Series
Forecast Studio

SAS
Forecast Server

Prepare Time
Series DataTasks→Time
Series
EXPAND

SAS/ETS

Regression
Analysis of Panel
DataTasks→Time
Series
TSCSREG

SAS/ETS

Regression
Analysis with
Autoregressive
ErrorsTasks→Time
Series
AUTOREG

SAS/ETS

Update Library
MetadataTools
METALIB

Base SAS

Assign Project
LibraryTools
LIBNAME

Base SAS

About This Article

This article is from the book:

About the book authors:

Stephen McDaniel is Principal and cofounder of Freakalytics™ LLC, which provides training and consulting for data presentation, visual data exploration, and dashboard development. Chris Hemedinger works in SAS R&D on the team that builds SAS Enterprise Guide, a popular user interface for SAS customers.

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