Organization

Chapter 3 describes the GA procedure. The procedure description is self-contained; you need to be familiar with only the basic features of the SAS System and SAS terminology to use it. The following list summarizes the types of information provided for the GA procedure:

Overview

provides a general description of what the procedure does. It outlines major capabilities of the procedure and lists all input and output data sets that are used with it.

Getting Started

illustrates simple uses of the procedure using a few short examples. It provides introductory hands-on information for the procedure.

Syntax

constitutes the major reference section for the syntax of the procedure. First, the statement syntax is summarized. Next, a functional summary table lists all the statements and options in the procedure, classified by function. In addition, the online version includes a Dictionary of Options, which provides an alphabetical list of all options in the GA procedure. The PROC GA statement is then described.

Details

describes the features of the procedure, including algorithmic details and computational methods. It also explains how the various options interact with each other. This section describes input and output data sets in greater detail, with definitions of the output variables, and explains the format of printed output, if any.

Examples

consists of examples that are designed to illustrate the use of the procedure. Each example includes a description of the problem and lists the options that are highlighted by the example. The example shows the data and the SAS statements needed, and includes the output produced. You can duplicate the examples by copying the statements and data and running the SAS program. The SAS Sample Library contains the code used to run the examples shown in this book; consult your SAS Software representative for specific information about the Sample Library.

References

lists references that are relevant to the chapter.