My first thought was... a _book_ about SAS and Excel? Sure, I struggle with it sometimes but how could there be enough material for a book? Then I looked at the Table of Contents. Wow! I won't have to google "SAS Excel' anymore when I have a question. Ben's book looks to be incredibly comprehensive, very organized, and well written with lots of code samples. Just what I need.

John Bentley

Microsoft Excel has become ingrained in most companies as the delivery vehicle of choice for summarized tables and graphs, as well as quick and dirty data repositories. Its flexibility in entering data and formatting reports is both its strength--and weakness. Add to that the number of input file types it accepts and the differences between versions, results in a complex and at times difficult job to figure out the best way to move data into and out of Excel.

Bill Benjamin's Exchanging Data between SAS and Microsoft Excel takes on that task of describing how to do this efficiently, starting with the most basic methods and working up to the most complex. He also points out the 'gotchas' with each combination of SAS and Excel versions so you know what you can and can't do in a given environment. Along the way he also points out what to look for when things don't work the way they should and how to fix the condition.

As a bonus, Bill also presents a framework for automating this process so Excel can be called from SAS and passed a VBA script, and even calling SAS from Excel. Having used this framework for close to two years, I can attest that it is a huge time saver and promotes consistent exchange of data between the two platforms.

"Hopefully you won't have to use every technique he passes along. But it's nice to know they are all in one place.

Ben Conner
Web World, Inc.

From simple 'Cut-and-Paste' methods to more complex ODS, DDE and VBA Excel macros, Exchanging Data between SAS and Microsoft Excel by William Benjamin has it all. Full of practical SAS examples, William's depth of knowledge and scope of industry customer applications are well exhibited in this technical, yet easy-to-apply book. Many useful options and processes are well explained and assembled together to work in harmony.

While everyone knows how useful Excel files are to collect and organize information, not many have taken advantage of using Excel with the full power of SAS. This book serves as a gateway to apply the best of both worlds. By leveraging Excel files as an easy-to-enter data source input file or as a publication quality output file, for example, and SAS for data management and advanced analytical analysis, for example, SAS programmers can now truly master the exchange of data between SAS and Excel. All of the best practice techniques to standardize and automate report generation can be applied in a system that is well accepted in all industries. The end result is improved management communication and program efficiency.

Sunil Gupta
Associate Director, Statistical Programming
Cytel
 

Wow, really great book! Exchanging Data between SAS and Microsoft Excel: Tips and Techniques to Transfer and Manage Data More Efficiently provides step-by-step directions that are clear and easy to follow. William Benjamin has provided multiple ways to accomplish the same thing so people have options based on what SAS products they have available to them. I find that today it is critical to be able to read data in from Excel, and business analysts often want their results in Excel, so being able to move data and results back and forth between SAS and Excel is a critical skill and this book does a great job of teaching that. I'm looking forward to the final product.

Andrea Wainwright-Zimmerman