SAS Programming by Example

Rating:
Summary: Example code is a great way to learn
Review: I am new to SAS, and I want to learn quickly. I am not a computer programmer, and syntax is not the fastest way for me to learn (and I do not think it is effective). This book works well: I learn from looking at code examples paired with clear narrative and brief output. I give the authors great credit for the ingenuity of their style (which saves me time and money). Although the books is perhaps a far from comprehensive, it is the SAS book I value most right now.

Rating:
Summary: Example code is a great way to learn
Review: I am new to SAS, and I want to learn quickly. I am not a computer programmer, and syntax is not the fastest way for me to learn. This book works well for me: I learn from looking at code examples paired with clear narrative and brief output. I give the authors great credit for the ingenuity of their style (which saves me time/money). Although the book is perhaps far from comprehensive, it is the SAS book I value most right now.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Resource...much more readable than the SAS manuals
Review: If you are learning SAS, you will probably find this book to be very helpful. The manuals that come with SAS are very diffuse, and furthermore, don't have enough examples, giving you mainly syntax. On the other hand, this book extracts a useful subset of the SAS system that is spread over many of the SAS manuals, and illustrates it with numerous simple, well-chosen examples.

One thing that sets this book apart from many of the other after-market SAS books for beginners is that it gives some nice hints as to how to write efficient SAS code, which quickly becomes important when you are dealing with large data sets.

Overall, the book is nicely organized, and well-suited to being used as a reference after you read it. It belongs on the desk of every beginning to intermediate SAS programmer. (If you are a true beginner, you might want to start with Delwiche and Slaughter's "The Little SAS Book: A Primer" for a completely painless introduction to the SAS system.)

Rating:
Summary: Too simplistic for many SAS users
Review: This book might be great for someone who has never used SAS before, and has also never used any kind of programming language at all.

For just about everyone else, this book is simply too simple. I'm not a SAS guru by any means, but there was absolutely nothing in here that I hadn't already picked up in a few months of playing around with SAS.

Two other books I'd recommend for peolpe who need any kind of depth would be "Applied Statistics and the SAS Programming Language" (by Cody and Smith) and "SAS Applications Programming" (by Dilorio).

Rating:
Summary: Decent book
Review: This book needs introductory knowledge of sas. The content borders on the edge though. It lacks on a couple of key points such as ODS, Macros and Proc Report which are very essential in a real-world situation. I read this book and the little sas book cover to cover. The little sas book would beat this to pulp. Definitely needs a revised edition.

Rating:
Summary: Good Do It Yourself Book on SAS
Review: This is a very good do-it-yourself book on SAS coding. But remember, it is still "do-it-yourself" so beware. You can get the job done, but it may not always be the most economical or efficient way. Otherwise this is an invaluable book. Keep it handy.