 |
||||||||
 |
|
|||||||
EDUCATION PROFILE
Name: Charu Shankar
SAS® History: My first job out of university was as a programmer. Then I landed my dream job in the UNESCO field office in New Delhi, training staff in software use and designing a library information and retrieval system. Since moving to Canada, I’ve worked in various training environments, teaching software skills, business communication skills and soft skills, to name a few. I’m very new to SAS; September 4th was my second month anniversary. My interests are Foundation SAS programming and business intelligence.Location: Toronto Company: SAS Canada Partner/Family:My family is in India and California. Pets: None for now, but I like dogs a lot so am hoping I’ll get to take care of Cookie, my friend’s golden retriever. Sports/Hobbies: Singing, sewing, dancing, reading, writing, horseback riding, gardening, meeting friends, traveling, going to the ROM, watching a funny Bollywood movie, anything to do with the arts (though the last one may not quite be art for some!). Growing up, I was surrounded by parks and gardens and still love to go for hikes and long walks. And SHOPPING. I love markets and am constantly discovering new places – new for me, anyway – like Kensington market, with its amazing fresh fruit markets and the shopkeepers’ willingness to bargain! Favourite Foods: Mango and peach salad; potatoes in any form! My ideal weekend: Spending time with friends and family would rate at the very top of my list. A group of friends and families get together every weekend. It’s absolute chaos, with kids running all over the place excited to see each other after a full week, but we really look forward to catching up on news over good food, great music and pleasant conversation. If I could be anything at all (besides a SAS programmer), I would be: A musician….or a teacher or a dancer. I love to express myself with language, and I love singing. My music is Carnatic, a form of Indian classical music which is from the south of India. If you’ve never heard this musical form, I’ll give you a quick glimpse. Picture yourself on the shores of the Indian ocean: cool sea breeze, fresh coconut water, the sun warming your back, musicians in their bright and vibrant clothes, the fragrance of lotus flowers, and in the distance you can hear the sounds of temple bells. Now imagine a violinist, three drummers and a singer creating music in this setting. This would be the closest I can describe the music in a physical sense. It can be quite mathematical in its sequential patterns. I love how the musician is free to create pieces on the spot within the chosen scale. There’s also an extensive lyrical and poetic component. If you want to learn more, you can visit my Web site: www.handicareintl.org/pankaja. When I’m not programming in SAS, I like to: Teach; I’ll teach anything. I love to take concepts and explain them in a simple way to my audience. My youngest learner was 4 and the oldest 79! I teach singing and also a weekend community program on human values to 9- to 12-year-olds. One thing every SAS programmer should know: Here is a simple tip, which I thought was an elegant way to display information by using the transpose procedure. Suppose your company is in a hiring frenzy with 40 new hires. Your manager wants to be able to manage salaries of all staff at one glance. He wants to see the salaries horizontally displayed so he can make instant comparisons. You would like to indulge your manager; he’s always been good to you. But you are also practical. You don’t want to tamper with your original data. Tomorrow he may have a need for it in the original form. You would like to show him salaries of the current eight employees. How would you do this? Simple enough. You invoke the Transpose procedure, which may ring a bell for Excel Pivot Table users. Transpose is a powerful procedure, which rotates your data for you, changing observations into variables and vice versa. |
||||||||
|
||||||||
For more on transpose – http://www8.sas.com/scholars/05/SESUG_05/Proceedings/2005/Tutorials/TU12_05.PDF |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
