Book Reviews

An Introduction to SAS® University Edition
978-1-62959-770-6


"Ron Cody has written several books on various features of SAS software. All of them are extremely well written and well organized. An Introduction to SAS University Edition is no exception to that characterization. This book takes the reader step-by-step through the various processes needed to gain access to the SAS University Edition, to read and manipulate data and, finally, to do simple analyses of that data. There are well-thought-out problems, sample data sources, and complete solutions for each major topic in the book.

"The book contains a nice treatment of the software's critical features. Included in that are the importation of various types of data from sources other than SAS, the use and assignment of labels and formats with SAS variables and many of the most important data manipulation "tricks" that the analyst needs in his/her toolbox. The book has a particularly nice section on useful built-in SAS functions. Subsetting (filtering) and sorting of data sets is also covered. The reader is shown how to output reports to PDF and RTF files and how to direct data to any particular library on their network. Standard data manipulation techniques including joins and interleaving are thoroughly explained.

"SAS programming capabilities are covered. They include looping and arrays, conditional processing, group processing and an explanation of several SAS functions, including the very useful, yet seldom covered, date and character handling functions.

"An Introduction to SAS University Edition will be useful as a primary text or as adjunct material for students and faculty involved in SAS programming courses, analytics programs and SAS statistics courses at both the graduate and undergraduate levels."

Gerry Hobbs
Associate Professor of Statistics
West Virginia University


"The SAS University Edition is being offered by SAS Institute as a free version of SAS for those who want to learn how to use this powerful software package. This is not a cut-down version of SAS. The package, which you download, gives the user access to all the primary SAS modules. This book covers the installation, initialization, and use of this great tool.

"The SAS University Edition utilizes SAS Studio as the user interface, and because this is a newer user interface,An Introduction to SAS University Edition devotes several chapters to the virtual environment, its installation, and its use. You will also learn how to code in the SAS programming language, how to manage and manipulate data, and how to import and report on data, including data that must be imported from sources other than SAS, such as Excel workbooks and CSV files.

"This is a Ron Cody book, and I'm sure that he feels compelled to offer some basic SAS programming tips and techniques. The really nice aspect to the approach that he takes is that they are described within the context of the SAS Studio interface. He carefully includes various windows and pull-down options that can assist the SAS programmer with this programming environment. This is not a surface-level introduction. Readers who actually work through the text and the included problem sets will have received a strong introduction to the SAS language.

"If you are planning on using the SAS University Edition, this book will be invaluable. It guides you through the installation, it teaches you how to use the virtual environment, it introduces the SAS Studio programming environment, and it is a great introduction to the SAS programming language. This is a one-stop-shop introduction to the SAS University Edition and to SAS."

Art Carpenter
CALOXY



"With SAS University Edition, SAS provides anyone who has an interest in analysis with many of the powerful tools available in regular SAS - but for free (and they throw in some extremely useful functionality not in the licensed version).

"Dr. Ron Cody takes his amazing talent for explaining SAS and puts it into his newest book, An Introduction to SAS University Edition, focusing on introducing new and experienced SAS users to this amazing resource. Covering everything from arrays to the wide range of functions available to the user, Dr. Cody takes SAS University Edition and distills it down to the components that an experienced SAS user is familiar with, but in a way that a new user can feel comfortable reading and be capable of using.

"I cannot recommend this book highly enough for anyone starting out in data analysis - this book earns a place on my desk, within easy reach."

Christopher Battiston
Wait Times Coordinator
Women's College Hospital