ST 512 USING SAS IN THE SICL

INTRODUCTION

This document is intended to serve as a complement to other, more 
comprehensive manuals for SAS and the Statistics Instructional 
Computing Laboratory (SICL).  These manuals will be your resource for 
using SAS on the SICL system; only a skeletal outline of necessary 
information is given here to get you started.  As you gain familiarity 
with the system, using it will become easier, so don't get discouraged 
if initially you are confused.  

All lab sessions will be held in SICL, and SICL will be our computing 
resource for the class.  The lab is a state-of-the-art facility based 
on SUN workstations.  For those of you who are interested, the 
operating system is UNIX.  The lab provides a pleasing environment for 
computing and is accessible from terminals across campus as well as 
home modems, as described in the manuals.  During open hours, help is 
available for problems you may encounter with the system, see below.  
Even if you have access to SAS on a mainframe account or PC, it is 
requested that you do all of your class-related computing using the 
SICL system.  See the instructor to discuss exceptions to this policy.  

We will be using SAS to perform many of our computations in this 
class, as they can be tedious and sometimes virtually impossible to do 
by hand.  For those who have not used SAS before, the acronym "SAS" 
stands for "Statistical Analysis System."  The company is based in 
Cary, NC, and was, in fact, founded by a graduate of the Statistics 
Department at NCSU.  The SAS language is a standard throughout 
industry and academia all over the world.  The SAS language is a 
powerful tool for data organization and analysis and has a simple 
structure that allows one to enter and access data in an intuitive way 
and perform various complex analyses with relative ease.    

The following manuals are available:

1.  SICL Intro. Manual: UNIX Section (by T. Arnold)

2.  SICL Intro. Manual: SAS Section (by T. Arnold)

3.  SAS Primer (by D.K. Chantala)

Manuals 1 and 2 contain basic descriptions of using the SICL system 
and SAS.  Manual 3 is a detailed, comprehensive reference for SAS, 
with several excellent examples.  For the class, you should purchase 
manuals 1 and 2.  If you intend to use SAS in future work, for 
example, in your research, you will want to purchase manual 3 as well.  

General information about the SICL is given in manual 1, the UNIX 
section -- specifically, information on logging in/out, connecting to 
SICL from remote locations, printing, etc.  Information about using 
SAS on SICL is given in manual 2, the SAS section.  In this document, 
only a few fundamental issues are covered; specific references are 
made to pages in manuals 1 and 2 are given if more detailed 
information is desired:  

-   Logging in, logging out of the system (manual 1, p. 1-9)

-   Manipulating files (manual 1, p. 10-13)

-   Using SAS on the SICL system -- entering and leaving SAS, the 
Display Manager and windows, typing and running programs, viewing 
output, printing programs and results (manual 2, p. 1-11) 

-   SAS -- programs, DATA step, PROCs (manual 2, p. 12-17) :  Some 
sample SAS programs appear at the end of this document.  These 
programs are examples in the instructor's ST 511 class notes.  The 
programs are available in ready-made files on the SICL system so that 
you may try running them yourself.  

During open hours in the lab, a person knowledgable about the computer 
system will be available to help you if you run into problems.  These 
people are there to help you with problems you are having with the 
system -- logging in, running programs, printing output.  They are not 
there to help you with conceptual issues in programs you are running 
for homework assignments.  So do not ask them for help on homework, 
only for help with using the computer to run SAS programs.  You may 
ask the graduate teaching assistant for our class for help with 
conceptual issues during lab sessions.  

LOGGING IN/LOGGING OUT

You have been provided with a username and password for the system.  
Do not give out your username or password to anyone, even to your 
mother.  When you enter the lab, you will see that there are several 
machines with "big" screens -- these are the workstations -- and many 
smaller WYSE terminals.  You may use either.  The login procedure is 
the same for each type, and is described on page 6 of manual 1 
and repeated here: 

Press any key until you get the prompt

    login: 

Type your username, then hit return.  You will then be asked for your 
password.  Enter it and hit RETURN.  Once you have logged in, you will 
see a prompt that will look like this: 

    sicl% 

When you see this prompt, the system is ready to respond to your 
commands.  

At the end of a session, you should always exit whatever software you 
are using (SAS in our case; see below for how to exit SAS) and return 
to the sicl% prompt.  At the prompt, type 

    logout 

and hit RETURN.  Be sure you read the discussion on page 9 of manual 
1.