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SAS® USER PROFILE
Name: Douglas Martin
Location: Edmonton, Alberta
Company: Global IQ –
www.globaliq.com
SAS® History: About
10 years, using versions 6.12, 8.2, 9.1.3 on Windows platforms and
SAS/STAT®, SAS/GRAPH® and SAS/ACCESS® to ODBC (I’ve used SAS/ACCESS
to ODBC mostly to connect to Microsoft Access databases and a little
bit to connect to Oracle databases). Almost all of my SAS experience
was at Biomira Inc. in Edmonton, with a brief stint at Cancer International
Research Group in Edmonton, and now I’m at Global IQ in Edmonton.
In all three cases, my work involved analysis and reporting of clinical
trial data.
Pets: Tropical
fish.
Family: Single.
I have a brother in British Columbia and a sister in Ontario.
Sports: Reading,
playing computer games and travelling. (My most recent major vacation
trip was to Northern Ireland – fascinating!). I also take courses
through Athabasca University purely out of interest.
Hobbies: I have always loved the outdoors, especially as a kid growing up in Northern Ontario (Sault Ste. Marie). One of my favorite outdoor activities is wilderness or canoe camping. There is nothing like getting away from the busy lifestyle and hustle and bustle of city life.
Ideal Weekend: Glued
to my home computer playing a new computer game!
Favorite Food: Chinese
food, steak, pizza.
If I could do anything (besides
being a SAS developer), I would be: A
computer game designer.
When I am not working with SAS,
I like to: Read and play computer games
(yes, I’m a computer nerd!).
One thing every SAS
programmer should know: The COALESCE
function - I first saw the COALESCE function documented in
PROC SQL. However, it can be very
useful outside of PROC SQL if you have several variables, one of which
may be nonmissing, and you want the value in the nonmissing variable.
It saves a lot of IF statements! I’ve used it in analysing data on
Case Report Forms where only one of a selection of fields is allowed
be filled in.
COALESCE(a,b,c,d,e,f) returns the first nonmissing numeric variable
from a,b,c,d,e,f (if they all happen to be missing, then the result
is missing). COALESCEC does the same for character variables.
Other comments: I’ve given several presentations to the Edmonton
SAS Users Group (e-SUG), my most recent being “How to Give SAS Amnesia:
The %reset Macro,” and also to the now-defunct Canadian Prairie
SAS Users Group (CPSUG). The first time I gave a presentation several
of my associates said it was like pulling teeth to get me to do
it. I now thoroughly enjoy it! I highly recommend getting out there
and giving a presentation to your local users group. It’s good practice
for public speaking, and a lot of fun!
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