Having been introduced to the SAS products in the previous
chapter, we now turn our attention to a basic introduction to the
three major types of tasks you may wish to perform in SAS:
-
Data manipulation tasks
are those where you wish to change or add to your current data set.
For instance, you may wish to sort your current dataset by some variable,
or add a new column of data that is the sum of three other columns.
Appendix A to this chapter gives you some lessons on how to do such
tasks, including manipulating data and creating new datasets.
-
Data analysis involves
generating representative numbers or pictures of the data that tell
you something you wish to know about the data. This could range from
an analysis as simple as the average of a variable to complex analysis
of the relationships between many variables.
-
Reporting obviously means
formatting your findings into a useful report that will be appropriate
and engaging for the user.
The next sections introduce
each of these major steps in greater or less detail, after an initial
overview of SAS programming in general.