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!