Starting SAS

When running SAS under Windows, you can start an interactive session to submit programs and view the resulting output, or you can execute batch SAS jobs, and view the output later.

By default, invoking SAS begins an interactive SAS session. If you have a SAS program that you want to submit as a batch job, specify the SYSIN system option with the name of the SAS program file when you invoke SAS.

When you start SAS in an interactive session for the first time, you are asked if you want to learn some basic tasks by taking the Getting Started Tutorial. To start the tutorial, click Start Tutorial. If you do not want to be prompted to take the tutorial, select Don't show this dialog box again. You can start the tutorial at any time by selecting HelpGetting Started with SAS Software.

The following examples show executing SAS batch jobs under Window 95, 98, NT, ME, and Windows 2000 operating systems.

To start SAS from the Windows Start Menu:

During installation, the Setup program automatically creates a program item in the Start menu that you can use to start SAS. However, you can create multiple SAS items within a folder to represent several differently configured SAS sessions. Also, if you want SAS to start every time you start Windows, you can place a program item or shortcut in the Start up folder. For information about creating shortcuts, see your Windows documentation.

After you have created a shortcut to SAS, you can append system options to the SAS command. To append system options:

There are two ways to start SAS from a SAS program file in Windows Explorer.

The Enhanced Editor is the default editor that starts when you start SAS. If you prefer to use the Program Editor, use one of the following methods to start the Program Editor when SAS starts:

For additional information, see Switching from the Enhanced Editor to the Program Editor, Edit Preferences, and ENHANCEDEDITOR System Option: Windows.

By default, SAS determines the current folder. SAS uses the current folder as the location to read and write SAS files when you do not specify a different pathname.

SAS also searches the current folder, based on the following statements, for the AUTOEXEC.SAS file or INITSTMT files. In this case, the path that the SASINITIALFOLDER system option specifies is disregarded.

However, you can specify a pathname to use for the current folder by using the SASINITIALFOLDER system option when you start SAS. Alternatively, you can use the following rules to determine the current folder:

If Windows cannot find the SAS.EXE file in the specified folder, the folder that is specified in the SAS command still becomes the current folder and Windows searches for the SAS.EXE file by using the Windows PATH environment variable.

For example, if you specify the following command, C:\MYSAS is the current folder, regardless of whether the SAS.EXE file is actually in that folder:

c:\mysas\sas.exe -config c:\mysas\sasv9.cfg

For more information, see Changing the SAS Current Folder and SASINITIALFOLDER System Option: Windows.

This section illustrates

You can invoke SAS from the Start menu by, selecting ProgramsSAS9.3.

The following display shows the Enhanced Editor and Log windows with a sample SAS program that is ready to be submitted. This program creates a SAS data set called Oranges, which contains the results of a taste test on four varieties of oranges. The program sorts the data set by the total test score and prints the data set.

The following SAS code appears in the Enhanced Editor window:

ods rtf file="c:\em\oranges.rtf";
data oranges;
   input variety $ flavor texture looks;
   total=flavor+texture+looks;
   cards;
navel 9 8 6
temple 7 7 7
valencia 8 9 9
mandarin 5 7 8
;
proc sort data=oranges;
   by descending total;
run;
proc print data=oranges;
   title 'Taste Test Results for Oranges';
run;
ods rtf close;

After you submit the program, the output appears in the Results Viewer window as follows:

The items in the SAS menu bar at the top of the main SAS window change, depending on which window is active within the SAS session. In addition, you can access window-specific pop-up menus, which offer the same menu choices. The pop-up menu in the following display was generated by right-clicking in an Enhanced Editor window.

When you are ready to end your SAS session, double-click the SAS control menu (the small icon in the upper left corner of the main SAS window) or click the X (in the upper right corner) and click OK when the dialog box verifies your request.

If SAS does not start, the SAS log can contain error messages that explain the error. Any error message that SAS issues before the SAS log is initialized is written to the MSG window, if it is available, or to the SAS console log, which is a Windows file. Under Windows Vista, Windows 7, Server 2008, and Server 2008 R2, the SAS console log is typically located in c:\Users\user-ID\AppData. In all other Windows operating environments, the SAS console log is typically located in c:\Documents and Settings\user-ID\Application Data. You can obtain the location and filename for the SAS console log from the application event log. To open the application event log, submit eventvwr from the Run dialog box and click Application.

If SAS does not start, if the screen appears and then disappears, or if SAS is very slow to open, you might have a problem with a missing printer, a damaged printer driver, or a failed network printer connection. Use the following steps to correct this problem: