About SAS System

The SAS System is an integrated system of software products.

The SAS System enables you to perform:

• data entry, retrival, and management,
• report writing and graphics,
• statistical and mathematical analysis,
• business forecasting and decision support,
• operations research and project management,
• applications development.

The core of the SAS system is the base SAS software. It consists of:

• the SAS language, a programming language used to manage data,
• procedures that are software tools for data analysis and reporting,
• a macro facility,
• a windowing environment.

The SAS System is available for the following operating systems around the UA campus:

• Windows NT, 2000, XP (version 9.1.3) Note: SAS for Windows v9.1.3 and earlier releases are NOT supported in Microsoft Vista.
• Macintosh OS 8 and 9 (version 6.12) Note: SAS is not available on OS X
• Unix (version 9.1.3)
• Linux (version 9.1.3)

Site License

Site licenses can be purchased by submitting a request at the IT Services Site License Agreement page. The annual license period is from July 1 to June 30 of the next year (e.g. July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2010). Faculty and staff should receive a renewal notice from UITS in late May or June every year; follow the instructions in the email to renew the license. Upgrades to new software releases are free. The option of a pro-rated price for a SAS license is NOT available. If you have purchased a new computer and need SAS reinstalled, contact keys@uark.edu, and you will be given directions for checking out a copy of the installation loaner package (including installation media and installation instructions). The current SAS license allows concurrent licensing, so you can purchase one copy of the SAS site license for both your office desktop and laptop; however, you can only run one copy at a time. The software can only be used for teaching and research purposes.

If you have purchased a statistical site license, you do not need to purchase a copy of the media CD as all site license users can check out any of the licensed statistics software installation loner media free of charge by contacting keys@uark.edu. If you are faculty or staff and have access to gizmo.uark.edu, you can download the software. If you are a student; you will need to check out the loaner CD from IT Services.

The site license online request site is only available to faculty and staff members. Students interested in purchasing or renewing a site license for SAS must ask their department to fill out a request for purchase or renewal of these site licenses. College of Education students should contact Sherrie Starkey at 575-3512, and College of Agriculture students should contact Mari Whitmer at 575-2448 regarding the purchase or renewal of a SAS site license.

SAS is also available in the General Access Computing Labs.

The SAS Enterprise Guide is included under the current SAS site license, and there is no additional fee for SAS Enterprise Guide. This is, however, a stand-alone installation that is by request only.

After you have renewed your SAS site license and received the new SID file, to update your SAS license:

1. Save the attached SAS SID file.
2. Click Start, SAS, SAS 9.1 Utilities, Renew SAS software.
   Note: you must have the appropriate privileges to update files in
   SASROOT.
3. Follow the Renew SAS software screen (step 1 - step 3) to update the
   license information.

If you have a personal installation of SAS 9.1 Foundation and the log contains messages about the license expiring, you will need to update your SAS 9 license. To update your SAS Installation Data (SID):

1. Select Start, Programs, SAS 9.1 Utilities, Renew SAS Software. The Renew SAS Software dialog box appears.
2. Select Browse to select a SAS Installation Data file, and select Open. This action places a path to the file in the SAS Installation Data File field.
3. Select Next. The Verify SAS Installation Data dialog box appears.
4. Select OK if the information is correct. If not, select Cancel.
5. Select Next.
6. Choose from available SETINITs.
7. Select Next. The default installation location for SAS appears in two fields. If your installation locations are different, specify product location by selecting the Browse buttons.
8. Select Renew.

SAS on comp.uark.edu

If you have X Window support, you can run SAS interactively by typing:
sas
at the comp% prompt.

If you don't have X Window support, you can run a SAS back job by typing:
sas mysasfilename.sas
at the comp% prompt.
where mysasfilename.sas is the SAS file that you want to submit for results.

To avoid hanging up at the comp% prompt during a SAS session, use the ampersand (&) to run the job. For example, at the comp prompt, type:
comp% sas mysasfilename.sas &
When the SAS job is complete, you will get a message verifying it is finished.

Using SAS

Creating a Permanent Data Set File

The SAS data set name is a two level name. You must specify the location and name the file you are going to create. There are various ways to create a SAS permanent file. One example is to use LIBNAME option. Assume you are going to create a SAS permanent data set, population, and it will be saved to c:\research_project_folder. You can use LIBNAME to define SAS libref:

LIBNAME mylib "c:\research project" ;

Data mylib.population ;
Set old file; 
... more SAS code

Population.sas7bdat will be saved in c:\research_project_folder.

Support

You can use your UARK username and password to access the SAS Online Tutorial.

For help with statistical computing, you can call 575-2905 or contact keys@uark.edu.