Glossary

aggregation

the process of grouping data by means of a statistic such as a sum, average, minimum, or maximum.

alert

an automatic notification of an electronic event that is of interest to the recipient.

Alerts portlet

a portlet that lists alert messages that have been issued to the user.

bar chart

a chart that consists of a grid and some vertical or horizontal columns (bars). Each column represents quantitative data.

cache

a small, fast memory area that holds recently accessed data. The cache is designed to speed up subsequent access to the same data.

confidence

in association analyses, a measure of the strength of the association. In the rule A --> B, confidence is the percentage of times that event B occurs after event A occurs.

dashboard

a report that shows at a glance the trends for Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of Web site activity. The dashboard compares KPIs for a specific day with the 30-day average, minimum, and maximum.

data set

See SAS data set

filter

specified criteria that are applied to data in order to identify the subset of data for a subsequent operation, such as continued processing.

forecast

a numerical prediction of a future value for a time series.

format

See SAS format

indicator

a representation of the performance of an objective that is being measured, expressed as a numeric value.

information map

a collection of data items and filters that provides a user-friendly view of a data source. When you use an information map to query data for business needs, you do not have to understand the structure of the underlying data source or know how to program in a query language.

key performance indicator

a measurement that shows whether an organization is progressing toward its stated goals. Short form: KPI.

KPI

See key performance indicator

layout

a generic term for a rectangular container that lays out the positions and sizes of its child components.

legend

a visual key to graphic elements in a graph. The legend consists of values, value descriptions, labels, and often a frame.

log

See log file

log file

a file in which information about software processing is recorded as the processing occurs. A log file typically includes error messages and warning messages, but it can also include informational messages and statistics such as the number of records that have been processed or the amount of CPU time that a program required.

needle plot

a plot in which data points are connected by a vertical line which connects to a horizontal baseline. The baseline intersects the 0 value, or the minimum value on the vertical axis.

pie chart

a circular chart that is divided into slices by radial lines. Each slice represents the relative contribution of each part to the whole.

proxy server

a special type of Web server that acts as an agent to represent a server to a client and to represent the client to the server. Usually a proxy is used as a cache of items that are available on other servers when those other servers are slower or more expensive to access.

range

a defined interval with distinct lower and upper boundaries that serve to collect or distinguish data values. Ranges are combined to form range sets.

reference lines

the vertical lines on a plot that indicate whether the values of plotting variables are less than, greater than, or equal to a particular value.

SAS data set

a file whose contents are in one of the native SAS file formats. There are two types of SAS data sets: SAS data files and SAS data views. SAS data files contain data values in addition to descriptor information that is associated with the data. SAS data views contain only the descriptor information plus other information that is required for retrieving data values from other SAS data sets or from files whose contents are in other software vendors' file formats.

SAS format

a type of SAS language element that applies a pattern to or executes instructions for a data value to be displayed or written as output. Types of formats correspond to the data's type: numeric, character, date, time, or timestamp. The ability to create user-defined formats is also supported. Examples of SAS formats are BINARY and DATE. Short form: format.

SAS Stored Process

a SAS program that is stored on a server and defined in metadata, and which can be executed by client applications. Short form: stored process.

service level indicator

See indicator

SLI

See indicator

stored process

See SAS Stored Process

tile chart

See treemap

treemap

a graph that represents the relative values of data by using rectangular areas. The color of each area represents the value of one measure in the query. The size of each area represents the value of the another measure in the query. ( In SAS/GRAPH a treemap is created with the GTILE procedure.)

Uniform Resource Locator

See URL

URL

a character string that is used by a Web browser or other software application to access or identify a resource on the Internet or on an intranet. The resource could be a Web page, an electronic image file, an audio file, a JavaServer page, or any other type of electronic object. The full form of a URL specifies which communications protocol to use for accessing the resource, as well as the directory path and filename of the resource. Short form: URL.