Haas MFE SAS Workshop
Lecture 1: Introduction to SAS
Peng Liu
http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/peliu/computing
Haas School of Business, Berkeley, MFE 2006
What is SAS?
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Stands for “Statistical Analysis System”,
Pronounced “sass”, not spelled out as three
letters.
Developed in the early 1970s at North
Carolina State University
SAS Institute Inc. was formed in 1976
Now the most widely used statistical software
in both industry and academic circles
Haas School of Business, Berkeley, MFE 2006
Peng Liu AND Alexander Vedrashko 2
Overview of SAS Products
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Base SAS - data management and basic
procedures
SAS/STAT - statistical analysis
SAS/GRAPH - presentation quality graphics
SAS/OR - Operations research
SAS/ETS - Econometrics and Time Series
Analysis
SAS/IML - Interactive Matrix Language
SAS/SQL – Structural query language
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Getting Started
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SAS PRIMER for Financial Engineers:
Lecture1: SAS Introduction
 Lecture2: SAS Data management
 Lecture3: SAS Financial modeling
 Lecture4: Advanced SAS techniques
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Learning by doing, let’s look at real SAS
program using actual financial data.
Haas School of Business, Berkeley, MFE 2006
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WHY SAS?
Top reasons for financial engineers to use SAS?
 Reliable
 Handel large datasets
 Powerful procedures
 Quant interviews
Haas School of Business, Berkeley, MFE 2006
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A Task

You have obtained a valuable dataset, you
want to look at the data, have a sense what
those data represent.
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Download the data MortgageLoan.xls from computing
webpage. Or open from P:\PodiumPC\2006MFE
 Often the data is too large that excel cannot contain.
 We want to use a software to read-in, look-it-up,
summarize, regression, visualize, report…
 A demonstration - you will do it yourself later.
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INPUT DATA
Options nodate nonumber ls=80;
DATA LOAN1;
INFILE 'R:\bulk\SAS\MFE\loan.txt' DELIMITER=',';
INPUT ID Origination mmddyy10. Term Rate Balance
Appraisal LTV FICO_orig City $ State $2. ;
RUN;
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Informative messages are written to the SAS log make sure you read it!
1
2
3
4
5
DATA LOAN1;
INFILE 'R:\bulk\SAS\MFE\loan.txt' DELIMITER=',';
INPUT ID Origination mmddyy10. Term Rate Balance
Appraisal LTV FICO_orig City $ State $2. ;
RUN;
NOTE: The infile 'R:\bulk\SAS\MFE\loan.txt' is:
File Name=R:\bulk\SAS\MFE\loan.txt,
RECFM=V,LRECL=256
NOTE: 100 records were read from the infile 'R:\bulk\SAS\MFE\loan.txt'.
The minimum record length was 56.
The maximum record length was 69.
NOTE: The data set WORK.LOAN1 has 100 observations and 10 variables.
NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):
real time
0.04 seconds
cpu time
0.01 seconds
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DATA STEP
Options nodate nonumber ls=80;
DATA LOAN1;
INFILE 'R:\bulk\SAS\MFE\loan.txt' DELIMITER=',';
INPUT ID Origination mmddyy10. Term Rate Balance
Appraisal LTV FICO_orig City $ State $2. ;
RUN;
/* DATA STEP */
DATA LOAN2; SET LOAN1;
LTV1 = 100*(BALANCE/APPRAISAL);
LTV2 = ROUND(LTV1,0.1);
IF LTV-LTV2 NE 0 THEN ERROR=1; ELSE ERROR=0;
RUN;
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PROC STEP
Options nodate nonumber ls=80;
DATA LOAN1;
INFILE 'R:\bulk\SAS\MFE\loan.txt' DELIMITER=',';
INPUT ID Origination mmddyy10. Term Rate Balance
Appraisal LTV FICO_orig City $ State $2. ;
RUN;
/* DATA STEP */
DATA LOAN2; SET LOAN1;
LTV1 = 100*(BALANCE/APPRAISAL);
LTV2 = ROUND(LTV1,0.1);
IF LTV-LTV2 NE 0 THEN ERROR=1; ELSE ERROR=0;
RUN;
PROC PRINT DATA=LOAN2;
VAR ID TERM RATE LTV LTV2 ERROR;
TITLE 'SAMPLE RECORDS FROM LOAN LEVEL DATA’ ;
RUN;
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PROC MEANS
DATA LOAN1;
INFILE 'R:\bulk\SAS\MFE\loan.txt' DELIMITER=',';
INPUT ID Origination mmddyy10. Term Rate Balance
Appraisal LTV FICO_orig City $ State $2. ;
RUN;
/* DATA STEP */
DATA LOAN2; SET LOAN1;
LTV1 = 100*(BALANCE/APPRAISAL);
LTV2 = ROUND(LTV1,0.1);
IF LTV-LTV2 NE 0 THEN ERROR=1; ELSE ERROR=0;
RUN;
PROC PRINT DATA=LOAN2;
VAR ID TERM RATE LTV LTV2 ERROR;
TITLE 'SAMPLE RECORDS FROM LOAN LEVEL DATA SET';
RUN;
PROC MEANS DATA=LOAN1; VAR APPRAISAL FICO_ORIG; RUN;
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SAS program structure
/* DATA STEP */
DATA LOAN2; SET LOAN1;
LTV1 = 100*(BALANCE/APPRAISAL);
LTV2 = ROUND(LTV1,0.1);
IF LTV-LTV2 NE 0 THEN ERROR=1; ELSE ERROR=0;
/* PROCEDURE STEP */
PROC MEANS DATA=LOAN1; VAR APPRAISAL FICO_ORIG;
RUN;
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Output 1
SAMPLE RECORDS FROM LOAN LEVEL DATA
Obs
ID
Term
1 240248
2 522967
3 826556
4 885563
5 4243480
Rate
180
360
360
360
360
LTV
6.375
6.625
7.125
7.000
7.750
LTV2
71.2
60.9
65.5
80.0
79.9
ERROR
71.2
60.9
65.5
80.0
79.9
0
0
0
0
0
360 7.250 55.4 55.4
360 8.250 80.0 80.0
360 8.500 80.0 80.0
360 8.250 57.9 57.9
360 7.750 48.4 48.4
360 7.750 75.2 75.2
360 7.625 50.0 50.0
360 7.625 80.0 80.0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
………….
23 5869916
24 5871655
25 5875033
26 5889419
27 5903222
28 5909103
29 5934371
30 5943458
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Output 2
SAMPLE RECORDS FROM LOAN LEVEL DATA
The MEANS Procedure
Variable
N
Appraisal 100
FICO_orig 100
Mean
Std Dev
Minimum
Maximum
691833.28
364426.29
220000.00
2351000.00
731.5700000
52.9597245 564.0000000 805.0000000
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What you need to run SAS
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SAS software for Windows/Unix/Mac OS
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SAS dataset(s)
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Available through Haas on Bear and on the
Terminal Server
One year licenses are available to UC Berkeley
students for $30 http://softdist.berkeley.edu/
Current version for windows 9.1.3
Can be created from external files in many formats,
can be directly input in data step.
SAS program(s)
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Data step(s), Proc step(s), or both
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SAS Datasets
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Structure: Rows-obs.; Columns-var.
Dataset names must be 32 characters or less,
constructed of letters, digits and the
underscore
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Good idea not to start names with an underscore,
special system variables are named that way.
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Missing values are handled consistently in
SAS, and are represented by a period (.)
 A SAS dataset contains not only data bu also
the information on varialbe type, label, etc.
 Temporary v.s. Permanent dataset
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SAS programs-Basic Structure 1
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SAS is composed of a series of SAS statement. Each SAS
statement must end in a semicolon (;)
All SAS programs for windows must end with statement: RUN;
There are two main components in most SAS programs – (the
SAS programmer is always doing one of the two things)
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The DATA steps and the PROCedure steps.
You can combine as many data and proc steps in whatever order
you want.
Data steps begin with the word data and procedure steps begin with
the word proc.
The data steps allow you to read raw/sas/other data, manipulate data
by concatenating, merging and subsetting data. The data step is
used to prepare your data for use by one or more SAS procedures
The procedure steps perform analysis on the data, and produce
statistical and graphical output.
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SAS programs-Basic Structure 2
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Add comments using asterisk * …; or /* …*/
The RUN; command signals to SAS that the previous
commands can be executed.
There are global options (like linesize and pagesize)
as well as options specific to datasets and procedures.
Variable names must be 32 characters or less,
constructed of letters, digits and the underscore
character. There are virtually no reserved keywords in
SAS; it's very good at figuring things out by context.
SAS is not case sensitive, except inside of quotation
mark ‘ ’ or “ ” .
The placement of the SAS statements does not effect
SAS processing. Create your own programming style!
Haas School of Business, Berkeley, MFE 2006
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Running PC SAS
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Open SAS program (clicking SAS icon)
Load or type your SAS program in the
Program Editor window(Enhanced Editor)
Run/Submit: F8=RUN;
Check log for error (F6=Log)
Check output/Graphic windows for
results/graph(F7=output)
Revise code (F5 PGM)
CTRL+E = Clear screen
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Importing/Exporting data
PROC IMPORT
OUT= WORK.loan
DATAFILE
="R:\bulk\SAS\MFE\Mo
rtgageLoan.xls"
DBMS=EXCEL REPLACE;
SHEET="Loan$";
GETNAMES=YES;
PROC EXPORT
DATA= WORK.Loan2
OUTFILE
="R:\bulk\SAS\MFE
\loan2.xls"
DBMS=EXCEL REPLACE;
SHEET="loan";
RUN;
RUN;
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Create a permanent dataset
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Two-level name: libref.dsname
Syntax: LIBNAME LIBREF ‘PATH’;
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LIBREF is the library reference name you provided.
PATH is the physical directory on your computer.
Example-creating a permanent SAS data
LIBNAME MFE 'R:\bulk\SAS\MFE\';
DATA MFE.LOAN; SET LOAN; RUN;
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Example-reading an external SAS dataset
DATA LOAN; SET MFE.LOAN;
LTV1 = 100*(BALANCE/APPRAISAL);
RUN;
Haas School of Business, Berkeley, MFE 2006
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Read Raw Data 1
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Fixed Format
1234567890123456789012345
024024807/19/20021806.375
052296708/14/20023606.625
082655602/18/20023607.125
088556305/06/20023607
424348007/10/20013607.75
429657109/11/20013607.125
Data loan;
Infile 'R:\bulk\SAS\MFE\loan.txt';
Input id 1-7 month 8-9 day 11-12
year 14-17 city $ 32-42 state
$50-51;
Run;
/*using fileref*/
Filename xxx
'R:\bulk\SAS\MFE\loan.txt';
Data loan;
Infile xxx;
Input id 1-7 month 8-9 day 11-12
year 14-17 city $ 32-42 state
$50-51;
Run;
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Read Raw Data 2
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List Format
0240248 07/19/2002 180 6.375
0522967 08/14/2002 360 6.625
0826556 02/18/2002 360 7.125
0885563 05/06/2002 360 7
4243480 07/10/2001 360 7.75
4296571 09/11/2001 . 7.125
Filename xxx
'R:\bulk\SAS\MFE\loan.txt';
Data loan;
Infile xxx;
Input id origination mmddyy10. Term
Rate Balance Appraisal LTV
FICO_orig city & $ State $2.
Run;
;
/* note:
1.May need to specify length for cha.
Var.to avoid default truncation
at length=8.
2.Make sure mising/blank field is
replaced by period.
*/
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Read Raw Data 3
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Delimited Format
0240248,07/19/2002,180,6.375
0522967,08/14/2002,360,6.625
0826556,02/18/2002,360,7.125
0885563,05/06/2002,360,7
4243480,07/10/2001,360,7.75
4296571,09/11/2001,360,7.125
filename xxx
'R:\bulk\SAS\MFE\loan.txt' ;
DATA LOAN1;
INFILE xxx DELIMITER=',';
INPUT ID Origination
mmddyy10. Term Rate
Balance Appraisal LTV
FICO_orig City $ State $2. ;
RUN;
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Modifiers for List Input
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The colon (:) modifier for list input tells SAS to use a format for input, but
to stop when the next whitespace is found.
 Data like:
17,244 2,500,300 600 12,003 14,120 2,300 4,232 25
could be read using an input statement like
input x1 : comma. x2 : comma. x3 : comma. x4 : comma. ;
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The ampersand (&) modifier tells SAS to use two whitespace characters
to signal the end of a character variable, allowing embedded blanks to be
read using list input. Thus, the statements:
input city & $ state $ 2.;
could be used to read data such as
SAN JOSE,CA
BATON ROUG,LA
UPPER SADD,NJ
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Other Modifiers for the Input
Statement
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+ number advance number columns.
# number advance to line number.
/ advance to next line.
trailing @ hold the line to allow further input
statements in this iteration of the data step on
the same data.
trailing @@ hold the line to allow continued
reading from the line on subsequent iterations
of the data step.
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Variable Lists
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SAS provides several different types of variable lists, which can
be used in all procedures, and in some data step statements.
Numbered List - When a set of variables have the same prefix,
and the rest of the name is a consecutive set of numbers, you can
use a single dash (-) to refer to an entire range:
x1 - x3 for x1, x2, x3; x01 - x03 for x01, x02, x03
Colon list - When a set of variables all begin with the same
sequence of characters you can place a colon after the sequence
to include them all. If variables a, b, xheight, and xwidth have
been defined, then x: for xwidth, xheight.
Special Lists - Three keywords refer to a list with the obvious
meaning:
_numeric_ , _character_, _all_
In a data step, special lists will only refer to variables which were
already defined when the list is encountered.
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Variable Lists (cont'd)
Name range list - When you refer to a list of variables in the order
in which they were defined in the SAS data set, you can use a
double dash (--) to refer to the range:
 If the input statement
INPUT ID Origination mmddyy10. Term Rate Balance Appraisal
LTV FICO_orig City $ State $2. ;
was used to create a data set, then
LTV -- state refers to LTV FICO_orig city state
 If you only want character or numeric variables in the name range,
insert the appropriate keyword between the dashes:
 id _character_ state refers to city and state
 In general, variables are defined in the order they appear in the
data step. If you're not sure about the order, you can check using
proc contents.
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Display SAS Dataset
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Proc content data=loan; run;
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The short option limits the output to just a list of variable names.
The position option orders the variables by their position in the data
set, instead of the default alphabetical order. This can be useful
when working with double dashed lists.
The directory option provides a list of all the data sets in the library
that the specified data set comes from, along with the usual output
for the specified data set.
proc print
DATA = loan2 (firstobs=60 obs=100);
VAR id origination rate ltv fico_orig city;
run;

Useful statement in proc print:
ID state; SUM error;
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SAS Functions: Mathematical
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SAS Functions: Statistical
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SAS Functions: other numerical
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Round(arg, amount)
Int(arg)
Ceil(arg)
Floor(arg)
Rannor(seed)
Ranuni(seed)
Ranbin(seed,n,p)
Runtbl(seed,p1,p2,… pn)
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Operators in SAS
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Arithmetic operators:
* Multiplication
+ addition
/ division
- subtraction ** exponentiation
Comparison Operators:
= or eq equal to ^= or ne not equal to
> or gt greater than >= or ge greater than or equal to
< or lt less than <= or le less than or equal to
Boolean Operators:
& or and and | or or or ^ or not negation
Other Operators:
>< minimum;
<> maximum; || char. concatenation
The in operator lets you test for equality to any of several constant
values. x in (1,2,3) is the same as x=1 | x=2 | x=3.
Haas School of Business, Berkeley, MFE 2006
Peng Liu AND Alexander Vedrashko 33
Using Statistical Summary Functions
You can use variable lists in all the statistical summary functions
by preceding the list with the word “of”; for example:
xm = mean(of x1-x10);
vmean = mean(of thisvar -- thatvar);
Without the of, the single dash is interpreted in its usual way, that is as a
minus sign or the unary minus operator; thus
xm = mean(of x1-x10);
is the same as
xm = mean(x1,x2,x3,x4,x5,x6,x7,x8,x9,x10);
but
xm1 = mean(x1-x10);
calculates the mean of x1 minus x10, and
xm2 = mean(x1--x10);
calculates the mean of x1 plus x10.
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SAS Functions: Character 1
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compress(target,<chars-to-remove>)
expr = "one, two: three:";
new = compress(expr,",:");
results in new equal to one two three
With no second argument compress removes blanks.
 index(source,string) - finds position of string in source
where = "university of california";
i = index(where,"cal");
results in i equal to 15
 indexc(source,string) - finds position of any character in string in source
where = "berkeley, ca";
i = indexc(where,"abc");
results in i equal to 1, since b is in position 1.
index and indexc return 0 if there is no match.
 left(string) - returns a left-justied character variable
 length(string) - returns number of characters in a string
length returns 1 if string is missing, 12 if string is uninitialized
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repeat(string,n) - repeats a character value n times
reverse(string) - reverses the characters in a character variable
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SAS Functions: Character 2
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right(string) - returns a right-justied character variable
both = right(one) || left(two);
insures no blanks between the two concatenated variables.
trim(string) - returns string with leading blanks removed
upcase(string) - converts lowercase to uppercase
lowcase(string)- converts uppercase to lowercase
scan(string,n,<delims>) - returns the nth word" in string
field = "smith, joe";
first = scan(field,2," ,");
results in first equal to joe
If you omit delims, SAS uses most non-alphanumeric characters
substr(string,position,<n>) - returns pieces of a variable
field = "smith, joe";
last = substr(field,1,index(field,",") - 1);
results in last equal to smith
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translate(string,to,from) - changes from chars to to chars
word = "eXceLLent";
new = translate(word,"xl","XL");
results in new equal to excellent
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verify(source,string) - return position of first char. in source which is not in string
check = verify(val,"0123456789.");
results in check equal to 0 if val is a character string containing only numbers and periods .
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Data Type Conversion-Problem
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SAS only has three data types: Numeric, Character
and Date/time.
When you accidentally mix variable types, SAS tries to fix
your program by converting them.
Log File - “Note: Numeric Values have been converted to
Character!” Cannot ignore this!
For example: 110 can be numeric or character, when you use
numerical function on character variables or vice versa. SAS tries
to convert to appropriate data type first, then perform function
calculations.
How to Fix? A practical way is to use INPUT/PUT functions.
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Close cousin of input/put statements, but different!
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Data Type Conversion-FIX
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Character to Numeric
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Numeric to Character
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new=INPUT (old, informat);
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new=PUT (old, format);
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Informat must be the type you
are converting to – numeric
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Informat must be the type you are
converting from – numeric
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Rate_num=input (rate_char,5.2); 
Rate_char=put (rate, 5.2);
Demo- loan5
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Peng Liu AND Alexander Vedrashko 38
SAS Date and Time - values
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There are three types of date and time values which
SAS can handle, shown with their internal
representation in parentheses:
1.
2.
3.
Time values (number of seconds since midnight)
Date values (number of days since January 1, 1970)
Datetime values (number of seconds since January 1, 1970)
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You can specify a date and/or time as a constant in a
SAS program by surrounding the value in quotes, and
following it with a t, a d or a dt. The following
examples show the correct format to use:
3PM => '3:00p't or '15:00't or '15:00:00't
January 4, 1937 => '4jan37'd
9:15AM November 3, 1995 =>'3nov95:9:15'dt
or '3nov95:9:15:00'dt
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SAS Date and Time - Formats
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SAS provides three basic informats for reading dates which are
recorded as all numbers, with or without separators:
1.
2.
3.
ddmmyyw. - day, month, year (021102, 6-3-2002, 4/7/2000)
mmddyyw. - month, day, year (110202, 3-6-2002, 7/4/2000)
yymmddw. - year, month, day (021102, 2002-3-6, 2000/7/4)
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These informats will correctly recognize any of the
followingseparators: blank : - . /, as well as no separator.
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For output, the ddmmyyXw., mmddyyXw. and yymmddXw.
formats are available, example using format statement
where “X" species the separator as follows:

B - blank
C - colon(:)
N - no separator P - period(.)
Haas School of Business, Berkeley, MFE 2006
D - dash(-)
S - slash(/)
Peng Liu AND Alexander Vedrashko 40
SAS Date and Time - Functions
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datepart - Extract date from datetime value
dateonly = datepart(present);
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day,month year - Extract part of a date value
day = day(date);
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dhms - Construct value from date, hour, minute and second
present_time=dhms(dateonly,10,00,00);
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mdy - Construct date from month, day and year
date = mdy(mon,day,1996);
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time - Returns the current time of day
now = time();
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today - Returns the current date
datenow = today();
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intck - Returns the number of intervals between two values
days=intck('day', origination, today());

intnx - Increments a value by a number of intervals
expiration=intnx('month', origination, term); format expiration yymmdds10.;
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Titles and Footnotes



SAS allows up to ten lines of text at the top (titles) and bottom
(footnotes) of each page of output, specified with title and
footnote statements. The form of these statements is
title<n> text; or footnote<n> text;
where n, if specified, can range from 1 to 10, and text must be
surrounded by double or single quotes.
If text is omitted, the title or footnote is deleted; otherwise it
remains in effect until it is redefined. Thus, to have no titles, use:
title;
By default SAS includes the date and page number on the top of
each piece of output. These can be suppressed with the nodate
and nopage system options.
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Peng Liu AND Alexander Vedrashko 42
System Options

Syntax option opt;
 Check out all options: proc options;

Frequently used options:

Display:






Date/nodate
Number/nonumber
Center/nocenter
Linesize=64-256 eg: ls=80;
Pagesize=20-200 eg: ps=100;
Label/nolabel
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Peng Liu AND Alexander Vedrashko 43
Dataset Options


Syntax: DATA dsname (opt);
Example:
data loan_CA (where=(state='CA') drop=id);
set loan;
run;

Frequently used options





(Drop|keep=var-list)
(Rename=(old=new…))
(Where=(logical expressions))
(label=‘dataset description’)
(Obs/firstobs=n) (used only with set or data option of a proc)
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Peng Liu AND Alexander Vedrashko 44
Resources: Introductory Books







http://www.sas.com/apps/pubscat/welcome.jsp
The Little SAS Book: a primer (3rd) is popular for beginners
Mastering the SAS System, 2nd Edition, by Jay A. Jae, Van Nostrand
Reinhold
Quick Start to Data Analysis with SAS, by Frank C. DiIorio and Kenneth
A. Hardy, Duxbury Press.
How SAS works: a comprehensive introduction to the SAS System, by
P.A. Herzberg, Springer-Verlag
Applied statistics and the SAS programming language, by R.P. Cody,
North-Holland, New York
SAS Institute produces several introductory guides; most are at a very
elementary level. Among them are:




Introducing the SAS System, Version 6, First Edition
SAS Language and Procedures: Introduction, Version 6, First Edition
SAS Introductory Guide for Personal Computers, Release 6.03
SAS Applications Programming: A Gentle Introduction
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Peng Liu AND Alexander Vedrashko 45
Online Resources (sample)



Online help Sample Programs, distributed with SAS
on all platforms.
SAS Institute Home Page: http://www.sas.com
SAS Institute Technical Support:


http://www.sas.com/service/techsup/find answer.html
Others:




http://www.math.yorku.ca/SCS/StatResource.html#SAS
http://www.indiana.edu/~statmath/stat/sas/win/
http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/sas/
http://statcomp.ats.ucla.edu/sas/
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Peng Liu AND Alexander Vedrashko 46