Useful SAS Manuals
September 9, 1996
A wide array of manuals and technical reports is available from the SAS Institute to help SAS users. While it is not necessary (or even helpful) to own all of the manuals, many people are not sure which ones they need. This newsletter describes the manuals that tend to be the most useful.
Different manuals focus on using SAS in a particular operating system, on the SAS programming language for manipulating data in the "data step", and on SAS procedures, or prewritten programs for analyzing data. A language manual is helpful for most SAS users. SAS procedures are described in a number of different manuals, and are grouped by general topic. You may want to purchase manuals related to the procedures that you use most frequently. Other manuals can be borrowed as the need arises.
"SAS Language and Procedures: Introduction, Version 6, First Edition"
If you are just starting out in SAS, consider borrowing a copy of this
manual and working through the examples. It provides a good
introduction to SAS programming, describes the SAS system, explains how
to create and manipulate data sets, and shows how to summarize and display
data.
"SAS Language: Reference, Version 6, First Edition"
If you plan to create or manipulate data sets in SAS, it is important
to have easy access to a SAS language manual. This reference manual
assumes some familiarity with the SAS data step or with another programming
language.
"SAS Procedures Guide, Version 6, Third Edition"
The base SAS procedures
perform data summarization and descriptive analyses.
"SAS/Stat User's Guide, Version 6, 4th Edition, Volumes 1 and 2"
"SAS/Stat Software: Changes and Enhancements Through Release 6.11"These manuals are useful for more advanced analyses. The user's guide includes general linear models, categorical data analysis, multivariate, discriminant, and survival analyses, clustering, and scoring. The supplemental manual documents newer procedures including those for mixed models and proportional hazards regression.
In addition to software manuals, SAS publishes a series of books that focus on particular statistical methods and how to implement them in SAS. These books are written in a less technical style and offer more background and examples than the manuals. Examples include: - "SAS System for Mixed Models" - "A Step-By-Step Approach To Using the SAS System for Factor Analysis and Structural Equation Modeling" - "Survival Analysis Using the SAS System: A Practical Guide" - "Logistic Regression Examples Using the SAS System".
All of the manuals mentioned above are available in the Office of Statistical Consulting. Contact a consultant if you would like to browse through any of them or arrange to borrow them overnight. In addition, manuals may be purchased through the campus store or directly from SAS. Ordering information is available on the World Wide Web at http://www.sas.com/service/doc/pubcat/uspubcat, or by calling the SAS Book Sales Department at 1-800-727-3228.
Author: Cara Olsen
Back to StatNews Table of Contents
(This newsletter was distributed to faculty and graduate students in the Division of Nutritional Sciences and the College of Human Ecology, and faculty in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, by the Office of Statistical Consulting. Please forward it to any interested colleagues and research staff. Anyone not receiving this newsletter who would like to be added to the mailing list for future newsletters should contact statcons@cornell.edu. Information about the Office of Statistical Consulting can be obtained at World Wide Web address http://www.cscu.cornell.edu.)