Editing a Data Expression in Text Mode

In SAS Visual Analytics, you create and edit filters, calculated items, and aggregated items by using an expression editor. The Text tab of the expression editor enables you to edit the expression as text.

You can add operators and data items to your expression by dragging and dropping them onto the expression or by entering the names of the operators or data items.

As you enter text, a list of suggestions appears. For example, if you enter date, then a drop-down list appears and enables you to select any of the operators and data items whose names begin with “date.”

When you make changes to your expression, it is automatically evaluated to determine whether it is valid. If the expression is not valid, then an error appears on the Messages tab, and the OK button is disabled. There might be a brief delay as your expression is evaluated.

When you add an operator to the expression, any parameters that are required by the operator are represented between braces { }. For example, if you add the x – y operator, then your expression appears as {Number} — {Number}.

Each parameter value that you enter should replace the entire string between the braces, including the brace characters. For example, you might replace {Number} with 12 or with a data item such as Expenses.

You can automatically select the next operator in the expression by pressing Ctrl + Shift + spacebar.

Data item names and global parameter names can be entered as plain text and are not case sensitive. You can enter names formally by using the format 'data-item-name'n for a data item, or 'parameter-name'p for a global parameter. If you switch to the Visual tab, then all of your names are converted to the formal format.

By default, category values and discrete numeric and date values are evaluated as formatted values. Continuous numeric values are evaluated as unformatted values.

To override this default behavior, you can add [raw] (to use unformatted values) or [formatted] (to use formatted values) to the right of the data item.

For example,

'Expenses'n[formatted]

specifies that the Expenses measure is evaluated as a formatted value.

To enter a string value, you can enter the string between single quotes or double quotes. If your value contains a quotation mark, use the \ character to escape the quote. If you use double quotes to enclose the string, then you do not need to escape the single quotes. If you use single quotes to enclose the string, then you do not need to escape the double quotes. For example, "O'Reilly", 'O\'Reilly', and '"Hello"' are all valid.

To enter a string that contains a newline character, use \r, \n, or both to specify the newline character.

For date, datetime, and time values, specify a formatted value in quotes, followed by the letter “d” for a date value, the letters “dt” for a datetime value, or the letter “t” for a time value.

For time values, a value with a leading underscore is a reference to a specific time of the day.

A time value without a leading underscore specifies a period of elapsed time.

For aggregated values, specify the format, aggregation-type [context] (value), where context specifies one of the following aggregation contexts:

For example,

sum [bygroup] ('cost'n)

aggregates the sum of the measure COST for each BY-group value.

Use a period character (.) to specify a missing numeric or date value. Use empty quotes ('') to specify a missing string value.