Overview

After you have data in your project, you can create reports and run analytical procedures on the data. To do this, you select a SAS task from the Tasks pane of the navigation area or from the Tasks menu in the data grid toolbar. Some tasks have wizards to guide you through the decisions that you need to make. Wizards are available from menus or from the Tasks pane.

In SAS Enterprise Guide, task windows have a common format, so once you are familiar with running one task, running other tasks is easy.

If you also have access to SAS Studio 3.7 or later, you can also access tasks from SAS Studio Enterprise Edition or the SAS Studio Single User Edition. In this tutorial, you will use only the built-in tasks that are shipped with SAS Enterprise Guide. You can determine which tasks are built-in by placing your mouse pointer over the task name and viewing the flyout window. The built-in tasks have a type of "Built-in."

Using Tasks in SAS Enterprise Guide

Click the Back and Next buttons to see the features of a typical task window. You can also see a text-only version of the information.

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On the left side of each task window is the selection pane. Use the selection pane to select groups of options for the task. All tasks have a Data page where you assign variables to roles in the task.

The Variables to assign box lists the variables (or columns) in the data set.

The icon next to each variable represents the variable's type. Country is a character variable ( Icon for character variable

). Year is a numeric variable ( Icon for numeric variable

). Month is a numeric variable in datetime format ( Icon for date variable

). Actual and Predict are numeric variables in currency format ( Icon for currency variable

The Task roles box lists the ways that the variables can be used in the task. To run the List Data task, one variable is required in the List variables role.

The icon next to each task role indicates the type of variable that you can assign to the role. The List variables role accepts all variable types. The Total of role accepts only numeric variables.

You assign variables to roles by dragging them from the Variables to assign list to the appropriate role in the Task roles list. You can also use the left and right arrows to assign and remove variables from roles. When multiple variables are assigned to a role, you can reorder them by using the up and down arrows.

Some roles limit the number of variables that can be assigned to them. If there is a limit, it is always noted beside the role name.

Every task also has options that you can set. Some tasks have many options, which are grouped into categories in the selection pane.

Most tasks enable you to specify titles and footnotes for your results.

As you assign variables to roles and select options in the task window, SAS Enterprise Guide generates SAS code behind the scenes. You can see this code by clicking Preview code at the bottom of any task window.

When you have finished selecting options for the task, click Run to submit the code and run the task. You can access the input data and all of the output for the task by clicking the tabs in the work area. Although the task window closes when you run the task, your selections are saved and you can reopen the task by clicking Modify Task on the work area toolbar. If the task is not open in the work area, you can reopen it by right-clicking it in the Project pane and selecting Modify.

Next you learn about creating a List Data report from your data.

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