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Interview with Author Michael A. Raithel
Authorline catches up with Michael A. Raithel as he eagerly awaits the publication of his new book - The Complete Guide to SAS Indexes.
- Authorline (AL): What was your motivation for writing your book?
- Michael Raithel (MR): I came to realize that though SAS Indexes are powerful performance tools, not that many SAS programmers make use of them. Information about SAS indexes is scattered among many different documents, making it difficult for programmers to form a clear picture of all that they entail. I have used SAS indexes in my own applications, and wrote a chapter about them in my previous book (Tuning SAS Applications in the OS/390 and z/OS Environments). I knew that the topic is a bit complicated, but I also knew that indexes can effectively reduce resources needed to process large SAS data sets. So, I felt that a book focusing on all-things-index would be a very valuable asset to any SAS programmer's library.
- (AL): Who are you targeting with your book?
- (MR): SAS programmers at different points in their careers will have different experiences with this book. Beginning and intermediate SAS programmers will find it to be a comprehensive, informative text on how to create and exploit SAS indexes to improve the performance of their SAS applications. Expert SAS programmers will find it to be a useful reference on all aspects of SAS indexes; including the obscure ways that indexes may be compromised. All SAS programmers that work with large SAS data sets will find this book to be very helpful in speeding up their programs and reducing computer resources.
- (AL): What features of the book are you especially pleased with?
- (MR): There are many features of the book that I am pleased with. First of all, I had an excellent technical review team, comprised of SAS Institute reviewers and some well-known, non-SAS Institute reviewers. They provided great suggestions and insights that helped me to craft a very technically sound book.
Secondly, I am pleased with the many, many, many examples in the book. Readers can read the explanatory text or simply jump to an example that illustrates the content of the text. They can use the examples to craft their own programs that create and use indexes.
Thirdly, I am pleased with the scope of the book. It truly is the "complete" guide to SAS indexes. All of the major SAS index topics are covered in great detail in the text. Additionally, I was able to cover a lot of more obscure-though important-index topics as well.
Fourth, I am pleased with the three chapters that describe how simple and composite indexes can be created via the Index data set option, the DATASETS Procedure, and the SQL Procedure. I like the pacing of those chapters and the way the examples turned out.
Finally, I think that my four chapters detailing how indexes can be used to reduce the consumption of computer resources provides the clearest information on that topic, anywhere. I am pleased how the chapter on using indexes via the WHERE expression, the BY statement, the KEY option on the MODIFY statement, and the KEY option on the SET statement turned out. I am sure that my readers will too.
- (AL): How will your book benefit SAS users?
- (MR): This book will give SAS users competitive advantage over other programmers by unlocking the secrets of using SAS indexes. Programmers who work with large SAS data sets and programmers who are charged for computer resources will benefit from the reductions in computer processing that results from a strategic use of SAS indexes. This book will take the guess work out of SAS indexes and give programmers a solid reference to use to exploit indexes as a SAS performance tool.
- (AL): What were some of the joys of writing this book?
- (MR): My greatest joy was working with the many people who made up the editorial team. I had the greatest SAS Press publishing professionals working with me on the book. Also, I had the best, most insightful technical reviewers; both from SAS Institute and from the work-a-day world. It was great to have the best and the brightest providing technical suggestions!
- (AL): How did you develop as a writer while you were creating this book?
- (MR): I stayed very organized and stuck to my writing schedule. This allowed me to have very productive blocks of writing time.
- (AL): What did you learn while writing this book that would be important for other authors to know?
- (MR): I learned that you have to be flexible with your basic concept of a book. A couple of my technical reviewers came up with great ideas that I just had not thought of. One suggested moving a chapter forward from being one of the last chapters to being one of the first. It made perfect sense and I did so. A couple of other reviewers surfaced more obscure index topics and suggested that I include them. They are now in the book. Several reviewers commented that more information was needed about how to recover missing or damaged indexes. That is now the last chapter of the book. No matter how clever or knowledgeable you are, there are still good ideas out there that will make your book better. You just need to be flexible enough to recognize them and put them to good use.
- (AL): How did you decide to publish with SAS?
- (MR): I have previously published two titles with SAS Institute: Tuning SAS Applications in the MVS Environment, and Tuning SAS Applications in the OS/390 and z/OS Environments, Second Edition. I had great experiences working with SAS Press on both of those books. Since I had such strong, supportive publishing teams in the past, it was a very easy choice to once again work with SAS Institute on this book.
- (AL): Your book will be going to the printer in just a few weeks. How does it feel to be in the home stretch of such a long project?
- (MR): I am very happy to be in the home stretch! What feels especially good is that I am so very pleased with how this book has turned out. I can't wait to get feedback from some of the users who are fortunate enough to purchase it!
- (AL): What advice would you give to potential authors?
- (MR): Stop dreaming about writing a SAS book and get busy writing one! Create a detailed book outline, fill out the Prospective Author Questionnaire, and send them off to SAS Press. You will feel much better once you have overcome inertia and taken those first steps. If SAS Press agrees that you have a good idea for a book, then the real fun (spelled w-o-r-k) begins! You will be that much closer to being an author.
- (AL): How were you able to balance your time between your career and writing this book?
- (MR): My career at Westat, an employee-owned research company in Rockville, Maryland, is demanding, so I did all of my writing on my own time-evenings and weekends-after work. Consequently, it was easy to keep the balance between writing this book and working for Westat.
- (AL): When you aren't writing or consulting, how do you like to spend your free time?
- (MR): I routinely go to my local gym to lift weights. I am also a runner-rain or shine. I spend time with my family, taking long walks, going to the movies, going to parks, biking, and taking the subway to downtown Washington, DC where we visit museums, walk around the monuments, and eat at the great restaurants. I like to read fiction and non-fiction; and-of course-technical papers from SAS conferences.
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Michael A. Raithel has worked with Information Systems in the commercial and government sectors since 1980. An internationally recognized expert in the use of SAS software in mainframe environments, he is the author of over a dozen SAS technical papers and is a popular lecturer at SUGI and at regional SAS conferences. Michael has been a section chair at SUGI, SESUG, and NESUG, and he co-chaired NESUG in 1995. He has been a mainframe computer performance analyst for Marriott International and for the U.S. Customs Service, as well as an independent consultant specializing in mainframe and Unix performance issues. He now works as a Senior Computer Systems and Applications Manager for Westat. A copy of the first edition of his book, Tuning SAS Applications in the MVS Environment, resides in the Smithsonian Institution of American History's Permanent Research Collection of Information Technology. |