SAS for Beginners Course

Lesson 1 • SAS Libraries and File Management

Teaches how SAS organises data through libraries and the LIBNAME statement. Students learn to reference permanent and temporary datasets correctly.

Lesson 2 • Getting Help and Using SAS Documentation

Guides students through built-in help resources, SAS documentation portals, and community forums. Builds self-sufficiency for troubleshooting throughout the course.

Lesson 3 • Navigating the SAS Interface

Introduces the SAS windowing environment, including the Editor, Log, and Output windows. Students gain hands-on familiarity with the layout before writing any code.

Lesson 4 • What SAS Is and Why It Matters

Covers SAS history, industry applications, and its position among analytics tools. Establishes context for why SAS remains a standard in data-driven organisations.

Lesson 1 • Reading Raw Text Files

Covers INFILE and INPUT statements for reading delimited and fixed-width text files. Students handle the most common raw data formats encountered in practise.

Lesson 2 • Inline Data with DATALINES

Teaches embedding small datasets directly in SAS programmes using DATALINES. Students create test datasets quickly without relying on external files.

Lesson 3 • Checking and Validating Imported Data

Introduces PROC CONTENTS and PROC PRINT for inspecting dataset structure and values. Students confirm data integrity before proceeding to analysis.

Lesson 4 • Importing Excel and CSV Files

Uses PROC IMPORT to bring spreadsheet and CSV data into SAS datasets. Students configure import options to handle headers, data types, and sheet selection.

Lesson 1 • Handling Missing Values

Explains how SAS represents and processes missing numeric and character values. Students write code that correctly handles missingness without introducing errors.

Lesson 2 • Working with SAS Functions

Introduces numeric, character, and date functions for data transformation. Students apply built-in functions to solve common data cleaning and calculation tasks.

Lesson 3 • Creating and Modifying Variables

Covers assignment statements, arithmetic expressions, and variable creation within the DATA step. Students build derived variables essential for downstream analysis.

Lesson 4 • Iterative Processing with DO Loops

Introduces DO, DO WHILE, and DO UNTIL loops for repetitive computations. Students automate calculations that would otherwise require redundant code.

Lesson 5 • Conditional Logic in the DATA Step

Teaches IF-THEN-ELSE and SELECT statements for applying conditional transformations. Students handle branching logic to recode and classify data values.

Lesson 1 • Descriptive Statistics with PROC MEANS

Covers PROC MEANS syntax for computing summary statistics on numeric variables. Students customise output statistics and group results by classification variables.

Lesson 2 • Ranking and Sorting Data

Covers PROC SORT and PROC RANK for ordering and ranking datasets. Students prepare sorted inputs required by many other SAS procedures.

Lesson 3 • Frequency Analysis with PROC FREQ

Teaches one-way and two-way frequency tables using PROC FREQ. Students analyse categorical variable distributions and cross-tabulations.

Lesson 4 • Tabular Reports with PROC TABULATE

Introduces PROC TABULATE for building multi-dimensional summary tables. Students design professional-looking tabular reports with row, column, and page dimensions.

Lesson 1 • Appending Datasets with SET and PROC APPEND

Covers vertical stacking of datasets using SET with multiple inputs and PROC APPEND. Students combine datasets with matching or mismatched variable structures.

Lesson 2 • SQL Joins with PROC SQL

Introduces PROC SQL for performing inner, left, right, and full joins. Students apply SQL logic as an alternative to MERGE for flexible dataset combination.

Lesson 3 • Interleaving and Updating Datasets

Covers interleaving sorted datasets and applying updates using the UPDATE statement. Students maintain and refresh master datasets with transaction data.

Lesson 4 • Transposing Data with PROC TRANSPOSE

Explains wide-to-long and long-to-wide reshaping using PROC TRANSPOSE. Students restructure datasets to match the format required by analytical procedures.

Lesson 1 • Aggregating Data with GROUP BY

Covers GROUP BY, HAVING, and aggregate functions for summarising data in SQL. Students replicate and extend PROC MEANS functionality using SQL syntax.

Lesson 2 • Creating and Modifying Tables with SQL

Covers CREATE TABLE, INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE statements in PROC SQL. Students manage SAS datasets using SQL data definition and manipulation commands.

Lesson 3 • Advanced PROC SQL Features

Introduces macro variable creation, DICTIONARY tables, and CASE expressions in SQL. Students use advanced SQL features to write dynamic and self-documenting queries.

Lesson 4 • Subqueries and Calculated Columns

Teaches inline subqueries and calculated columns within SELECT statements. Students build complex queries that derive new values and filter on aggregated results.

Lesson 1 • Applying SAS Formats and Informats

Covers built-in SAS formats for numeric, character, and date display. Students apply formats to variables to improve readability in reports and outputs.

Lesson 2 • Variable Labels and Metadata

Explains LABEL statements for assigning descriptive variable names in output. Students improve report clarity without altering underlying variable names.

Lesson 3 • Creating Custom Formats with PROC FORMAT

Teaches building user-defined formats and informats using PROC FORMAT. Students map coded values to meaningful labels for cleaner analytical output.

Lesson 4 • Exporting Data from SAS

Teaches PROC EXPORT and ODS for writing SAS data to CSV, Excel, and other formats. Students deliver analysis results in formats required by stakeholders.

Lesson 1 • Univariate Analysis with PROC UNIVARIATE

Covers PROC UNIVARIATE for detailed distributional statistics, percentiles, and normality tests. Students assess variable distributions before applying inferential methods.

Lesson 2 • Producing Reports with ODS

Teaches the Output Delivery System for routing SAS output to HTML, PDF, and RTF. Students format and deliver professional statistical reports to any audience.

Lesson 3 • Correlation Analysis with PROC CORR

Teaches Pearson and Spearman correlation using PROC CORR. Students measure linear and rank-based relationships between numeric variables.

Lesson 4 • T-Tests with PROC TTEST

Covers one-sample, two-sample, and paired t-tests using PROC TTEST. Students test hypotheses about means and interpret p-values and confidence intervals.