Foreword

In my many years of managing the development of some of the core data manipulation languages of SAS, such as the DATA step, DS2, PROC SQL, and FedSQL, I have come to appreciate the value of education. It doesn’t matter how good the technology is if it is not understood by the people it is intended to benefit. And simply collecting the facts into a volume is not the same as teaching a subject.

With his new book, Mastering the SAS DS2 Procedure: Advanced Data-Wrangling Techniques, Second Edition, Mark has succeeded in providing an extremely concise introduction to not only the syntax of the SAS DS2 language but, more importantly, to the objectives of the language. He builds his examples systematically in a way that keeps readers turning pages at a satisfying pace. The DATA-step-to-DS2 comparison that he includes helps seasoned SAS programmers quickly find their bearings in the new language but at the same time does not require readers to be DATA step experts to learn DS2.

His coverage of the DS2 package library is especially valuable since these large functional blocks illustrate one of the key design principles of DS2: packages allow for the expansion of the language capabilities with large-scale components that are supplied by SAS or written by the user. The focus on parallel execution is timely in this age of exploding data volumes and grid-based computing, and DS2 is well suited for the new parallel world, especially with the latest extension of the SAS platform, SAS Viya and SAS Cloud Analytic Services (CAS).

Finally, I particularly like Mark’s personal anecdotes relating to his journey with the language, finding what is missing, what is different, and what is unique and why. I regard Mark as an extended part of the DS2 design team and value his input on how the language can be improved in the future.

Robert Ray
Director, Research and Development (Retired)
SAS Institute Inc.
Cary, North Carolina