1. Introduction
New to SAS 9.* , there was an update….
When you first open SAS, the default main window will open displaying 4 sub-windows. By default, the enhanced editor is at the bottom of the screen, the log is at the top, and the SAS Explorer and Results window at the left. We will begin our discussion here?? and then move to other display features of SAS.
2. Log
When you first open SAS, the first few lines of the log display information about the SAS software version and license currently being used as well as information on the platform begin used. For example, the operating system that the above SAS session is opened in is Windows 7 profession 64-bit. Additionally (TS1M1) refers to the Technical Support level (TS level) and Maintentance release (M Level) for the version of SAS in use.
The SAS Log shows information, warnings, and error messages after execution of a SAS program or SAS global statements (for instance…). If the program you submit displays unexpected results or no results at all, the Log will help you identify the source of the error.
For example, in the log window below diplays the information pertaining to Proc Means on a SAS data set called HSB2. The text for the submitted SAS procedure is in black and the SAS Log notes are in blue. The procedure was completed without errors so SAS provides notes that SAS : (1) wrote the results out to a HTML file. (2) provides the number of observations read from the data set, and (3) the total processing time.
The SAS log will also display an error in red
Log files can be saves and have a .log file extension.
3. Program and Enhanced Editor
The SAS Editor works similary to standard text editors such as Notepad. There are two versions of the SAS Editor: Program Editor and Enhanced Editor.
By default, the Enhanced Editor is enabled when SAS starts and the Program Editor is disabled. All of the features available in the Program Editor are also available within the Enhanced Editor. The Enhanced window provides additional features including color-coding of SAS program elements and ability to open multiple pgram files(.sas) in multiple Enhanced Editor windows.
For example…
If you need to, you can access the Program Editor window from the View menu.
4. Explorer
The Explorer window is an access point for data such as catalogs, data sets, libraries and host files. If you close the Explorer window you can recover it under View menu.
The Explorer window allows you to create and access SAS data and format libraries as well as open and edit SAS files. SAS data sets saved in a particular library can be accessed by opening the library in the Explorer window and double-clicking on the data set of interest.
5. Output>> versus Results Viewer
In SAS 9.3, a new set of defaults has be implemented into the SAS Window environment. First, ODS Graphics is enables at SAS start-up and the LISTING destination is closed and the HTML destimantion is open. You may have notices that when you submit a SAS program resulting in output, the output is sent to the Results Viewer instead of the Output window.
In previous version of SAS the user needed to submit an ODS HTML statement to generate HTML output. This is no longer the cast. However, if you need to create LISTING output during your SAS session you will need to submit the ODS LISTING statement.
6. Customizing Your SAS Window Environment
7. SAS Help and Documentation
There are two ways to access SAS help and documentation.
First, is when you first intialize SAS. When you intially open SAS a dialogue box will open inside SAS:
The bottom portion asks whether you would like SAS help and documentation. This is done by clicking "Start Guides".
Second, in the top tool bar of the main SAS window, there is a icon that resembles a purple book with a yellow "?" mark. If you click on this icon, a separate window will open with SAS Help and documentation.
8. Web Notes
You can view the SAS program associated with this module by clicking descript.sas . While viewing the file, you can save it by choosing File then Save As from the pull-down menu of your web browser — In the Save As dialog box, change the file name to descript.sas and then choose the directory where you want to save the file, then click Save.