Data preparation for analytics

 SAS has been dealing with data for over 41 years and specifically preparing data to be analyzed using analytics. There are certain features of the data step language, as well as certain PROCs, that save a programmer's time and effort in preparing data for analytics.

Analytical data management and analytics is an iterative process done many times. During analysis, the two phases are iterated over and over until the final results are available:

Figure 3.1: Data management for analytics

It is indispensable for an analytic environment for data management features and analytics capabilities to be seamlessly integrated and available in one platform. One of the most powerful aspects of using SAS for analytics is the fact that SAS has always offered powerful data management capabilities along with a comprehensive set of analytics, all within on environment or platform. In this chapter, we will be looking at some of the unique features within SAS that either take much...