SAS® 9.2: Key Highlights

SAS is pleased to introduce SAS 9.2 Phase 1. This phase brings more analytical products and graphical capabilities to Base SAS. SAS 9.2 can now be downloaded via the Internet, through our new Electronic Software Delivery process; and installation and configuration is streamlined by the new SAS Deployment Wizard. For more information on ordering SAS 9.2, please contact your account executive.

The enhancements offered in SAS 9.2 Phase 1 are a direct response to requests from our existing customer base. Some of the new capabilities included in key SAS products are listed below.

Base SAS Software

Updates to Base SAS 9.2 include:

The option to capture information about input, output and use of macro symbols from a SAS job while it is running. The SAS Code Analyzer runs existing SAS programs, executing them while generating metadata about the SAS job that are emitted via comments. Using the new SCAPROC Procedure, the SAS Code Analyzer captures information about the job step, I/O information such as file dependencies, and macro symbol usage information from a running SAS job. The new checkpoint and restart modes allow you to resume prematurely terminated SAS batch jobs at the next DATA or PROC step.
SAS language updates. You can now write your own functions in either C, C++, or the SAS language, and use them in a SAS program. External functions that are written in C or C++ can be used in SAS programs once they have been registered using the PROTO procedure.
Enhanced ability to read a series of like-named SAS data sets. Our users asked for this and we've delivered by letting you use the dash list or colon list syntax. This is the same as how you would specify a list of link-named variables in a DROP or KEEP statement. In addition, the performance of the IN operator has been greatly improved by using a binary tree lookup. The Base SAS 9.2 Procedures Guide provides more information on enhancements for the SAS language, including PROC SQL, PROC SORT, PROC REPORT, and a host of other procedures.
ODS Statistical Graphics
ODS Statistical Graphics, experimental in SAS 9.1, is embedded in SAS 9.2. Over 50 procedures in SAS/STAT, SAS/ETS, SAS/QC, and Base SAS now offer graphs produced by this system. We've extended the functionality of ODS Graphics with:
- The addition of new graph types, ODS styles designed for statistical work, and a point-and-click editor for enhancing titles, labels, and other graph features. You can also modify graphs by changing their underlying templates, which are supplied by SAS and are written in the Graph Template Language (GTL). The LISTING destination is now supported by ODS Graphics.
- The addition of an interactive editor that lets you edit and enhance ODS Statistics Graphics. You can use the ODS graphics editor to modify the existing elements of a graph such as titles and labels, or to add features such as text annotation for data points.

SAS/GRAPH Software

All SAS/GRAPH procedures now support ODS styles for all devices and includes significant enhancements. The upgraded features include:

A new family of SAS/GRAPH procedures that use ODS Graphics to create standalone plots, such as scatterplots overlaid with smoothers. This is particularly useful for exploratory data analysis. The new SGRENDER procedure helps you create customized displays by writing your own templates with the GTL.
A feature that automatically selects an appropriate device and style for all open destinations. It also now provides TrueColor support, which allows over 16 million colors in a single image.
A new GKPI procedure generates several key performance indicators and a new GTILE procedure generates tile charts.
The new GEOCODE procedure enables you to add geographic coordinates to data sets that contain location information such as mailing addresses. It also allows you to perform geolocation with non-address location data.

SAS/STAT Software

SAS 9.2 brings several procedures available as experimental Web downloads for SAS 9.1.3 and makes them a permanent part of our software. These new procedures include:

GLIMMIX for analyzing generalized linear mixed models. In SAS 9.2, the GLIMMIX procedure introduces the COVTEST statement for inference about covariance parameters and it provides new estimation methods: Laplace and adaptive quadrature.
GLMSELECT, and QUANTREG for special functions. The GLMSELECT procedure performs effect selection in the framework of general linear models. The QUANTREG procedure performs quantile regression.
Bayesian capabilities for the GENMOD, LIFEREG, and PHREG procedures. Specifying the BAYES statement produce posterior distributions via Gibbs sampling while also providing trace plots and convergence diagnostics. The experimental MCMC procedure is a general purpose Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) simulation procedure that is designed to fit a variety of Bayesian models.
A rewritten Power and Sample Size application (PSS), previously available as a Web application. It has been rewritten as a Java client.
Two hundred enhancements to existing procedure in SAS/STAT including the TTEST procedure for simple crossover analysis as well as equivalence tests and the GENMOD procedure for zero-inflated Poisson regression models. The jackknife and BRR variance estimation and domain analysis are now provided by all of the survey data analysis procedures. The PHREG procedure adds a HAZARDRATIO statement for computing hazard ratios, including hazard ratios in the presence of interactions.

SAS/Genetics Software

SAS/Genetics includes two new experimental procedures, the BTL procedure and the GENESELECT procedure. Several enhancements have been made to the ALLELE procedure. A format of genotype columns not previously supported can now be accommodated by the ALLELE, CASECONTROL, FAMILY, and HAPLOTYPE procedures.

SAS/ETS Software

The PANEL procedure expands the estimation capability of the TSCSREG procedure in the time-series cross-sectional framework. The new methods include: between estimators, pooled estimators, and dynamic panel estimators using GMM method. The COUNTREG procedure implements count data models such as Poisson regression, negative binomial regression with linear and quadratic variance functions, zero-inflated Poisson (ZIP) model, and the zero-inflated negative binomial (ZINB) model. The new SIMILARITY (experimental) procedure provides similarity analysis of time series data.

The new ESM procedure provides forecasting using exponential smoothing models with optimized smoothing weights. In addition, the SASEHAVR interface engine is now in production and available to Windows users for accessing economic and financial data residing in a HAVER ANALYTICS Data Link Express (DLX) database.

SAS Stat Studio

SAS Stat Studio is new software for data exploration and analysis. It provides a highly flexible programming environment in which you can run SAS/STAT or SAS/IML analyses and display the results with dynamically linked graphics and data tables. SAS Stat Studio is intended for data analysts who write SAS programs to solve statistical problems but need more versatility for data exploration and model building. The programming language in Stat Studio, which is called IMLPlus, is an enhanced version of the IML programming language. IMLPlus extends IML to provide new language features, including the ability to create and manipulate statistical graphics, call SAS procedures as functions, and call computational programs written in C, C++, Java, and FORTRAN. Stat Studio runs on a PC in the Microsoft Windows operating environment and is is distributed with SAS/IML software.

SAS/QC Software

Creating consistent output is easier now that the ANOM, CAPABILITY, CUSUM, MACONTROL, PARETO, RELIABILITY, and SHEWHART procedures produce graphs that conform to ODS styles. Also, with ODS Graphics (experimental in SAS/QC 9.2), you can obtain the highest quality output with minimal syntax and full compatibility with graphics produced by SAS/STAT and SAS/ETS procedures.

The SAS ADX Interface for Design of Experiments includes enhancements related to response surface designs, mixture designs, general factorial designs, and split-plot designs. Furthermore, ADX can now import data from SAS data sets or external file formats, and it can export design information to SAS data sets or external file formats.

SAS/OR Software

SAS/OR 9.2 continues the mathematical optimization improvements delivered in previous releases. Several new and enhanced features, including a new suite of accelerated solvers for linear, mixed-integer, quadratic, and general nonlinear optimization, expand the scale and scope of problems that SAS/OR can address. The new OPTMODEL procedure provides an algebraic language designed for building and solving optimization models, embedded within the SAS language. The new OPTLP, OPTMILP, and OPTQP procedures enable the direct solution of linear, mixed-integer, and quadratic optimization models represented in industry standard formats. SAS/OR 9.2 also features the first production versions of the GA procedure (for optimization with genetic algorithms) and the Earned Value Management macros (for evaluating and predicting performance in executing project schedules) as well as the first experimental version of SAS Simulation Studio (for discrete event simulation of systems).

And More ...

Several other products have been enhanced for SAS 9.2 Phase 1 including SAS/ACCESS, SAS/CONNECT, SAS/IntrNet, and SAS/SHARE. Read the What's New in SAS 9.2 documentation for a complete list of enhanced and new features.

Interested in SAS 9.2 Phase 1?

If you are interested in SAS 9.2, contact your SAS account executive. If you need help identifying your account executive but would like to start the request process now, you can call SAS directly at 1-800-727-0025, option 2, or you can chat with a SAS representative.

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