The following provides an overview of the enhancements that have been made to products in Foundation SAS for SAS 9.2.
| Base SAS ODS Statistical Graphics SAS/ACCESS SAS/ETS SAS/Genetics |
SAS/GRAPH SAS/IML SAS/OR SAS/QC SAS/STAT |
The option to capture information about input, output, and use of macro symbols from a SAS job while it is running. The SAS Code Analyzer runs existing SAS programs, executing them while generating metadata about the SAS job that is emitted via comments. Using the new SCAPROC procedure, the SAS Code Analyzer captures information about the job step, I/O information such as file dependencies, and macro symbol usage information from a running SAS job. The new checkpoint and restart modes allow you to resume prematurely terminated SAS batch jobs at the next DATA or PROC step.
SAS language updates. You can now write your own functions in either C, C++, or the SAS language, and use them in a SAS program. External functions that are written in C or C++ can be used in SAS programs after they have been registered using the PROTO procedure.
Enhanced ability to read a series of like-named SAS data sets. Our users asked for this and we've delivered by letting you use the dash list or colon list syntax. This is the same as how you would specify a list of link-named variables in a DROP or KEEP statement. In addition, the performance of the IN operator has been greatly improved by using a binary tree lookup. What's New in Base SAS 9.2 provides more information about enhancements for the SAS language, including PROC SQL, PROC SORT, PROC REPORT, and a host of other procedures.
New graph types and new ODS styles that are designed for statistical work.
Support for the LISTING destination.
The new ODS Graphics Editor, which is a point-and-click interface for enhancing titles, labels, and other graph features. You can also add features such as text annotation for data points.
Facilities for modifying graphs by changing their underlying templates, which are supplied by SAS and are written in the Graph Template Language (GTL). You can also use the GTL to create your own highly customized statistical graphics.
A new in-database feature in SAS/ACCESS 9.2 Interface to Teradata substantially improves performance by moving analytic tasks closer to your data. You can publish custom formats, as well as most formats that SAS provides, so that they run inside the Teradata Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW). A SAS_PUT() function, which emulates the traditional SAS PUT function and supports the use of SAS formats inside the database, is created and registered for use in SQL queries.
Other new features include new or enhanced functions for the SQL_FUNCTIONS= LIBNAME option, a new SQL_FUNCTIONS_COPY= LIBNAME option for specific DBMSs, and new or enhanced hyperbolic, trigonometric, and dynamic SQL dictionary functions.
For most DBMSs, you can now create temporary tables using DBMS-specific syntax with the new DBMSTEMP= LIBNAME option. For HP Neoview, you can use the new BULKEXTRACT= LIBNAME option along with new data set options for bulk loading and extracting. In addition, SAS/ACCESS software supports additional operating environments for existing DBMSs.
The PANEL procedure expands the estimation capability of the TSCSREG procedure in the time-series cross-sectional framework. The new methods include between estimators, pooled estimators, and dynamic panel estimators using the GMM method. The COUNTREG procedure implements count data models such as Poisson regression, negative binomial regression with linear and quadratic variance functions, zero-inflated Poisson (ZIP) model, and the zero-inflated negative binomial (ZINB) model. The new SIMILARITY (experimental) procedure provides similarity analysis of time series data.
The new ESM procedure provides forecasting using exponential smoothing models with optimized smoothing weights. In addition, the SASEHAVR interface engine is now in production and available to Windows users for accessing economic and financial data residing in a HAVER ANALYTICS Data Link Express (DLX) database.
SAS/Genetics software includes two new experimental procedures, the BTL procedure and the GENESELECT procedure. Several enhancements have been made to the ALLELE procedure. A format of genotype columns not previously supported can now be accommodated by the ALLELE, CASECONTROL, FAMILY, and HAPLOTYPE procedures.
A new family of SAS/GRAPH procedures that use ODS Graphics to create stand-alone plots, such as scatter plots overlaid with smoothers. This is particularly useful for exploratory data analysis. The new SGRENDER procedure helps you create customized displays by writing your own templates with the GTL.
A feature that automatically selects an appropriate device and style for all open destinations. It also now provides TrueColor support, which allows over 16 million colors in a single image.
A new GKPI procedure that generates several key performance indicators and a new GTILE procedure that generates tile charts.
The new GEOCODE procedure that enables you to add geographic coordinates to data sets that contain location information such as mailing addresses. It also allows you to perform geolocation with non-address location data.
SAS/IML Studio (formerly known as SAS Stat Studio) is software for data exploration and analysis. It provides a highly flexible programming environment in which you can run SAS/STAT or SAS/IML analyses and display the results with dynamically linked graphics and data tables. SAS/IML Studio is intended for data analysts who write SAS programs to solve statistical problems but need more versatility for data exploration and model building. The programming language in SAS/IML Studio, which is called IMLPlus, is an enhanced version of the IML programming language. IMLPlus extends IML to provide new language features, including the ability to create and manipulate statistical graphics, call SAS procedures as functions, and call computational programs written in C, C++, Java, and FORTRAN. This software also includes an interface to the R language. SAS/IML Studio runs on a PC in the Microsoft Windows operating environment and is distributed with SAS/IML software.
SAS/OR 9.2 software continues the mathematical optimization improvements delivered in previous releases. Several new and enhanced features, including a new suite of accelerated solvers for linear, mixed-integer, quadratic, and general nonlinear optimization, expand the scale and scope of problems that SAS/OR software can address. The new OPTMODEL procedure provides an algebraic language designed for building and solving optimization models, embedded within the SAS language. The new OPTLP, OPTMILP, and OPTQP procedures enable the direct solution of linear, mixed-integer, and quadratic optimization models represented in industry standard formats. SAS/OR 9.2 software also features the first production versions of the GA procedure (for optimization with genetic algorithms), the Earned Value Management macros (for evaluating and predicting performance in executing project schedules), and SAS Simulation Studio (for discrete event simulation of systems).
Creating consistent output is easier now that the ANOM, CAPABILITY, CUSUM, MACONTROL, PARETO, RELIABILITY, and SHEWHART procedures produce graphs that conform to ODS styles. Also, with ODS Graphics (experimental in SAS/QC 9.2), you can obtain the highest quality output with minimal syntax and full compatibility with graphics produced by SAS/STAT and SAS/ETS procedures.
The SAS ADX Interface for Design of Experiments includes enhancements related to response surface designs, mixture designs, general factorial designs, and split-plot designs. Furthermore, ADX can now import data from SAS data sets or external file formats, and it can export design information to SAS data sets or external file formats.
The GLIMMIX procedure analyzes generalized linear mixed models. In SAS 9.2, PROC GLIMMIX introduces the COVTEST statement for inference about covariance parameters. It also provides two new estimation methods: Laplace and adaptive quadrature.
The GLMSELECT procedure performs model selection in the framework of general linear models.
The QUANTREG procedure performs quantile regression.
The GENMOD, LIFEREG, and PHREG procedures now provide Bayesian analysis. Specifying the BAYES statement produces posterior distributions via Gibbs sampling while also providing trace plots and convergence diagnostics.
The experimental MCMC procedure is a general-purpose Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) simulation procedure that fits a variety of Bayesian models.
The Power and Sample Size (PSS) application, previously available as a Web application, has been rewritten as a Java client.
Over two hundred enhancements to existing procedures greatly increase analysis capabilities. For example, the TTEST procedure now offers simple crossover analysis as well as equivalence tests; the GENMOD procedure provides zero-inflated Poisson regression models; the survey data analysis procedures include replication methods for variance estimation; and the PHREG procedure adds a HAZARDRATIO statement for computing hazard ratios, including hazard ratios in the presence of interactions.