Rating: 
Summary: SAS APPEAL
Review:
SAS APPEAL
One of the best introductions to SAS, the "little purple book" is now in its 3rd edition (November 2003; ISBN: = 1590473337). Compared with the previous version (this one)," the 3rd edition includes more information on preparing reports and tables, and exporting data. However, the basic format and organization is the same.
This book is organized into 8 chapters, with six appendices, and an index. The overall organization is clear-- one topic leads clearly to the next (contrast this with the overly concise "Getting Started with the SQL Procedure," also by SAS). The book clearly assumes no previous SAS knowledge, although covering operating systems (e.g., Windows, your local workstation or mainframe) is beyond the book's scope. Previous experience with any data entry, data management, or programming will be very helpful, but is not essential. Each chapter is organized into two-page topics (these range from 7 topics in the MACRO chapter to 20 in the overly long data entry chapter) with introductory paragraphs, examples that include a small data set, and programming related to the topic. Programming language related to the new topic is shaded to distinguish it from material already covered or otherwise irrelevant. Because of the mini-data sets for each topic, you don't have to keep returning to datasets presented at the beginning only (as you do with some introductory texts). The reason for using the language, the data, the example, and the output are all there on the 2 facing pages; it's very easy to use.
In 217 well-written pages, the book advances from the very introductory (e.g., every SAS line ends with a semicolon; think of columns as variables, and rows as observations) to techniques (e.g., the chapter on MACROS) and programming "tricks" useful to those with years of experience (the too-brief chapter on debugging programs, the section on the always difficult MERGE statement). This is the challenge of an introductory book: It needs to teach the basics, but not so basic that one can finish the entire book in a couple of hours. Delwiche and Slaughter handle this task superbly. Chapter 1, for example, explains basic SAS concepts (the database, the data step, procedures, viewing and printing output), and a few pages on SAS for Windows. (The authors occasionally refer to SAS for Windows ("PC SAS"); this is valuable for those who have this software but otherwise extraneous.) Still, after nearly 15 years of SAS experience, I turn to this book when I want a concise yet easily understood explanation of something I may have not used for awhile. After mastering this book, I recommend that users follow it with the somewhat more advanced "SAS Programming for Researchers and Social Scientists" (Paul Spector) and/or "Cody's Data Cleaning Techniques (Ron Cody).
Chapters are as follows (I've added a sample topic in parentheses after each chapter title):
1. Getting Started Using SAS Software ("The Two Parts of a SAS Program")
2. Getting Your Data into the SAS System ("Reading Raw Data...")
3. Working with Your Data ("Subsetting Your Data")
4. Sorting, Printing, and Summarizing Your Data ("Summarizing Your Rata with PROC MEANS")
5. Modifying and Combining SAS Data Sets (Combining Data Sets Using a One-to-Many Match Merge")
6. Writing Flexible Code with the SAS Macro Facility ("Macro Concepts")
7. Using Basic Statistical Procedures ("Using PROC REG for Simple Regression Analysis")
8. Debugging Your SAS Programs ("DATA Step Produces Wrong Results but No Error Message")
The book's main problem is Chapter 2. The lengthy material on inputting data will be irrelevant for most students, as datasets are often already prepared. Still, because one may sometimes need to create a dataset, the chapter is useful. In addition, chapter 8, doesn't contain include enough on error detection and debugging programs, an extremely important SAS skill that helps one detect and distinguish programming and dataset errors. Also the Appendix on resources, "Where to Go from Here," mentions SAS Institute published books only, although this is partly due to the paucity of well written SAS books by independent authors when the second edition came out in 1998 (compared with today). Overall, while this much-loved book is much loved by those who took their first SAS steps with it. I recommend the new edition (3rd) edition; it has more topics and is more current, for only slightly more money.
Rating:
Summary: Almost perfect reference book for SAS
Review: Although this book appears, at a glance, to be slim, it has all necessary content for both SAS beginners and advanced users. Not only did the authors try to explain each topic of SAS commands and the rules in quite sensible words with easy examples, but also they did a wondergul job in organizing all those complicate stuff in a very decent way. Although there is a catchy that since it was revised in 1996, some of quite interesting features of the current SAS version is not included, and although I still have some SAS books more recent, this one is still what I rush to first whenever I need to look for something.
Rating:
Summary: A must for the new SAS user
Review: As a Cobol programmer of 20 years experience being thrust into the world of SAS, I required a book to quickly give me the help I needed to become productive as soon as possible. This book is it. Not only is it packed with useful information and tips, it's also an entertaining read. It certainly has made my life much easier.
Rating: 
Summary: The Little SAS Book : A Primer, Second Edition
Review: As a new user to SAS, I was told this was the book to get. But I quickly found out that it was a useless book for beginners. It is very short on substance and has very little in the form of examples to guide you along. The book offers bare bones SAS syntax with little to help you build your SAS skills. I would not recommend this book. Instead, I would opt for a book with more details and SAS syntax example.
Rating:
Summary: good for both beginner and experienced programmers
Review: As a self-taught beginner on SAS I have found this book to be easy to follow; very informative and educational. I work in a University research setting and have had professors and experienced programmers request the loan of this small treasure.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Reference
Review: I don't think any one book can teach you to use SAS. You learn SAS by practicing with real data. With practice, this book because increasingly useful. I bought this book when I knew very little about finding even simple statistics with SAS. At the time, it was not particularly helpful. Now that I know more, especially with the way SAS handles data, this book is great. I refer to it fairly regularly to remind myself of syntax. The real key to learning SAS is learning how it organizes datasets. Learn to use 'libraries' (this book doesn't teach you that part). However, I think most people trying to do real analysis will eventually outgrow this book.
Rating:
Summary: A good book to keep for SAS
Review: I find this book as very useful in learning SAS. It is tough to get these many tips - I would say a more comprehensive guide- in a single book.It is worth to keep this book if you are a SAS programmer for quick references
Rating:
Summary: Type, paste, click: which one do you want?
Review: I had friends who, 3 or 4 years ago, got into IT world by getting Oracle DBA certificates or MCSE fast. Their salaries were higher than mine as a database marketing statistician back then. Now many of them no longer have as strong market demand for their skills and experience. Some are trying to switch to so-called data mining fields. So they are coming to me to again seek fast track on how to master SAS, quickly.
I told them it took me 14 years to get to my curent level of using sas on mainframe, unix (now including linux) and Windows. I ask them how many OSs they are expert with running, say, their SQL servers. Apparently MS SQL server only runs on Windows? So my friends are having hard time even thinking of going back to big iron or Unix, although the big iron has been relatively more friendly to use overtime.
To help them feel better, I recommend this Little SAS Book to them. I told them the gist of the SAS software is quite independent of OS. To master SAS is much like to master some kind of KongFu. It may look simple. It is not. It may look boring or backward. It is not. If you feel I am talking like a Taoist, you are getting it.
This book, by the way,is not a good candidate for a pillow book, although its cover may give you a very soft look (should software books all have a 'soft' look?) and it looks no way near a tome. My point is you need to use the software with the book.
Good luck. Read the book several times to begin with. Every time you will see something different.
Rating: 
Summary: Horrible simple book
Review: I have programming experience but no SAS knowledge. So I bought this book according to others' recommedation. After I read few pages of the book, I found out this book might be a good book for those who didn't know much about programming or for a quick look at simple syntax. But it is a total waste of money to own it. Spend one hour in the bookstore to read is the value for this book, if you have programming experience in any other language. It is a beginner's book for a simple tutorial.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent primer
Review: I learned SAS using this book as the textbook. Later, I taught SAS using this very same book (at UC Berkeley Extension, Summer 1997). It is, in my opinion, the best introduction to data management using SAS. For those looking for other good teaching books, I also recommend (Ron?) Cody's.
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