What's New in SAS Enterprise Guide 4.3

Overview

SAS Enterprise Guide 4.3 includes the following new features and enhancements:

new program editor with autocomplete and integrated syntax help
recently accessed program files are available from the File menu
option to automatically add output data to the project tree
ability to analyze SAS programs
explicit SQL pass-through option
more control over whether ODS statements are generated for the results
autoexec process flow
ability to send data files to JMP
longer names and custom filters for SAS Information Maps
automatic chart option for OLAP cubes
ability to create OLAP cube slices that use SAS code instead of MDX code
macro variables for conditional processing
ability to open SAS Web Report Studio reports
new and enhanced SAS tasks

Note: SAS Enterprise Guide 4.3 runs on SAS 9.2 and SAS 9.3. For the latest information about SAS Enterprise Guide, see http://support.sas.com/software/products/guide.

New Program Editor with Autocomplete and Integrated Syntax Help

You can use the SAS Enterprise Guide program editor to create new programs and to edit existing SAS programs in your project. The program editor offers several features to help you reduce your programming time, including autocompletion for hundreds of SAS statements and procedures and options. The program editor also provides parenthesis matching, built-in syntax and function help, and automatic code formatting. SAS Enterprise Guide no longer includes the comprehensive SAS syntax files, but all of the syntax help is now built into the program editor.

Recently Accessed Program Files Are Available from the File Menu

You can use the File menu to easily open program files that you have recently viewed.

Option to Automatically Add Output Data to the Project Tree

A new option (Automatically add output data to the project tree) is available when you are setting options to manage results. When you select this option, SAS Enterprise Guide starts adding output data to the project tree after you run a task or program.

Analyzing SAS Programs

Using SAS Enterprise Guide, you can analyze the contents of a program. You might want to analyze a SAS program for the following reasons:

to quickly identify the different parts of the program and see how each part is related.
to take advantage of grid computing.

Explicit SQL Pass-through Option

When a query uses data from an external database, you can use explicit pass-through mode to send the SQL statements to the database to be processed. If the data files are very large, this can improve your performance because the files do not have to be copied to the SAS server for processing. Once the statements are processed, the results are sent back to SAS Enterprise Guide.

More Control over ODS Statements

Two new options (Generate ODS Statements and Generate ODS Macro Variables) are available when you are specifying the general options for your results. With these options, you can specify whether to generate ODS statements or whether to save your ODS preferences as macro variables. Saving your preferences as macro variables enables you to submit programs from SAS Enterprise Guide to a SAS grid computing environment.

Autoexec Process Flow

There are several ways to do autoexec processing in SAS Enterprise Guide. You can create a process flow named "autoexec" that can be run automatically whenever you open your project. For example, you could use this process flow to define libraries or to assign macro variables for the project.

Sending Data Files to JMP

If you have JMP 7, JMP 8, or a later release of JMP installed on your computer, then you can send a data file from SAS Enterprise Guide to JMP. When sending a file to JMP, SAS Enterprise Guide creates a temporary copy of your selected data file and opens it in a new JMP session, where you can then use the visualization features of JMP.

Working with Information Maps

Using SAS Enterprise Guide, you can create a custom filter for an information map. This custom filter is available only during your SAS Enterprise Guide session and is not saved to the information map.

SAS Enterprise Guide can also open information maps with names that are greater than 32 bytes in length. (This feature was added in the third maintenance release for SAS 9.2..)

Automatic Chart Option for OLAP Cubes

In the graph view of the OLAP Analyzer, you can select a chart type of Automatic Chart. This chart type enables the OLAP Analyzer to choose the best chart for the data based on the number of measures and whether or not the data includes a time dimension.

Create OLAP Cube Slices That Use SAS Code Instead of MDX Code

A new option for the slice type (All on rows except measures) is available when you are creating an OLAP cube slice. When you select this option, the slice is created using SAS code instead of by using MDX code. This means that a slice that is created using this option can be run from within a stored process.

Macro Variables for Conditional Processing

When defining the condition for conditional processing, you can now use macro variables in addition to input data sets, prompts, and the date and time.

Open SAS Web Report Studio Reports

You can use SAS Folders to find a report that is registered in metadata with SAS Web Report Studio.

New and Enhanced SAS Tasks

New Tasks

The following tasks are new for this release:

Create Format from a Data Set enables you to create a SAS format by using data that is saved in a SAS data set.
Map Chart creates a two-dimensional (choropleth) or three-dimensional (block and prism) color map that shows the variation in the value of a response variable for different geographical areas, such as counties, states, and countries.

The Create Map Chart task no longer requires specially prepared data ("feature tables") in order to create useful maps. This makes it easier to create map charts using only a map data set and your response values. The Create Map Feature Table task, provided with earlier versions of SAS Enterprise Guide, has been deprecated. Your existing projects that use this task will still run; however, you will not be able to create new steps that use the Create Map Feature Table task.
Scatter Plot Matrix creates a paneled graph of scatter plots for multiple combinations of variables. You can use options to overlay fit plots and ellipses on your scatter plots.

Enhanced Tasks

If the input data source for a SAS task is from a DBMS engine, then SAS uses the sort functionality on the database to sort the data before running the task. Using the database functionality rather than the SORT procedure, which is used for files that are not saved to a database, optimizes the performance of the SAS task.
The following tasks now support the DTQTR, DTMONTH, and DTDAY datetime intervals:
- ARIMA Modeling and Forecasting
- Basic Forecasting
- Prepare Time Series Data
- Regression Analysis with Autoregressive Errors
In the Filter and Sort task, you can now specify how the name of the task appears in the SAS Enterprise Guide project. You can also specify where to save the output table.
In the Principal Component task, you can create these new plots:
- a pattern profile plot. The value on the Y-axis is the correlation between the variable and the principal component.
- pattern component plots. Each observation on the plot is the correlation between the variable and the two corresponding components on the plot. You can choose whether to plot the patterns in a vector.
- The interface for the Random Sample task has been redesigned.
In the Tile Chart task, the following new functionality is available:
- You can change the input data source after you open the task. You can also filter the input data source.
- You can customize the color ramp for the tile chart. You can also use color points to specify how the colors should be distributed across the data. To specify color points, you must be running SAS 9.3 or the third maintenance release for SAS 9.2 (TS2M3). For more information about this maintenance release, see http://support.sas.com/software/maintenance.