Book Reviews

Learning SAS by Example: A Programmer's Guide
978-1-59994-165-3



"I wish that Ron Cody's new book, Learning SAS by Example: A Programmer's Guide, had been around when I was first learning SAS! This impressive book steadily moves the reader from SAS novice to SAS authority in 26 well-written, well-paced chapters. All of the basics are covered in this book; the fundamentals of the DATA step, getting data into and out of SAS, conditional and iterative processing, SAS functions and formats, important SAS procedures, creating frequency and tabular reports, and generating output in publishable formats such as RTF and PDF.

This book is well suited for people who are just learning SAS, as well as for people who would like a broad-based SAS reference. There are plenty of solid examples that emphasize the material in the chapters. Each chapter ends with exercises that test the reader's understanding of the concepts and the SAS code presented. Because of its pacing, breadth, and scope, I have no doubt that Learning SASŪ by Example: A Programmer's Guide will become the preferred book for learning SAS software in business, government, and educational institutions the world over. "

Michael A. Raithel
Senior Systems Analyst
Westat


"Twenty years ago, I learned SAS programming from a book called the SAS Applications Guide, 1980 Edition. Many people, including myself, made careers by learning everything in that book.

Ron Cody's Learning SAS by Example: A Programmer's Guide is just such a book for a new generation of programmers. Studying real-world examples is the best way to learn applications programming. The topics Ron has chosen are the most often requested tasks that I am asked to program today. If you learn everything in his chapters on restructuring and combining data and the use of arrays, you will be proclaimed a SAS maven by your colleagues--guaranteed.

Experienced programmers will be interested in learning some new features of PROC PRINT and the Output Delivery System. And, yes, maybe you will finally learn to use PROC TABULATE and PROC REPORT because Ron makes these two procedures easy to understand. "

Jeanne Spicer
Manager, Data Management and Programming Services
Population Research Institute
Penn State University


"It is refreshing to find the highlights of SAS all in one book, essentially a 'soup to nuts' of SAS concepts! The author has organized the book well. It starts with simple applications of SAS and gradually works up to advanced topics like ODS and SQL. As the name implies, every concept is presented with lucid examples.

This book is ideal for programmers who are novice SAS users but cannot afford the time to learn SAS in a formal manner. Even advanced users of SAS can benefit from the excellent examples and refresh their memories of long-forgotten details of options and syntax. "

Priya Suresh
Research Programmer Analyst
RTI International
Research Triangle Park, North Carolina


"Teachers and students will love the detailed code examples and numerous problems. The book is destined to become a classic like Ron's Applied Statistics and the SAS Programming Language, which is now in its fifth edition."

Ian Whitlock


"Ron Cody's newest book can serve not only as a textbook for a SAS programming course, but also as a reference for intermediate-level programmers. The book begins with basic data input methods and advances through merging data sets and more complex tasks.

I would recommend Learning SAS by Example: A Programmer's Guide to anyone wishing to learn or refresh his/her SAS programming skills. "

Karol H. Katz, M.S.
Programmer Analyst
Yale University School of Medicine


"Ron Cody has earned a reputation as an excellent lecturer, instructor, and author. His most recent work, Learning SAS by Example: A Programmer's Guide, does not merely adhere to his historic level of excellence; it raises it to a new level.

Ron has succeeded in condensing the major components of Base SAS into one easy-to-read book. Using simple examples, he illustrates the use of the DATA step and many of its components, basic PROCs, and even macros and ODS.

Learning SAS by Example: A Programmer's Guide is now at the top of my list of texts to assist programmers in teaching themselves SAS. "

Andrew T. Kuligowski
SouthEast SAS Users Group