unix

I used this book in grad school to refresh my very limited SAS knowledge for a course I was doing. I'd used other books during my undergrad days, but none of them was as helpful as this one. It's a good way for a beginner to ease themselves into SAS without getting tangled in the complexities.

Now, several years down the road with many years of experience as a SAS programmer, I still recommend this book to anyone who asks me to point them in the direction of a good book to use for learning SAS.

This book is definitely useful, and I understand that it is often even used as a classroom textbook. This book certainly covers a lot of territory. I give it 3 starts since the writing is good but isn't quite as easy-reading as a few other SAS books. For beginners, I might suggest instead 'SAS programming By Example'. It explains details very skillfully and in a step by step fashion! Better yet, perhaps buy both books - that may be better than having just one or the other. Again, this books is definitely useful.

This is the best introductory SAS book I have seen. It introduces the basic SAS structure and programming statements. A good and detailed explanation is provided for DATA step vs. PROC, a topic that always proves to be difficult to grasp for SAS newbies.

The book starts with SAS terminology and logic, i.e., how SAS works its magic. It moves on to simple tasks such as reading in data, summarizing it, and displaying it. Then there are chapters on SAS programming elements (expressions, logic flows, etc.) as well as intermediate-advanced statements. The MERGE statement is explained very clearly.

Examples abound, although I feel that they are presented in a very confusing format -- often you can't tell if a block of text belongs to the main text or an example. The organization of the book is also a little confusing, esp. if you want to use it as a reference book (not recommended; stick with SAS manual set instead).

In short, this book provides an excellent ovewview of SAS. Read the chapters in sequence and you'll soon be on your way to happy SAS'ing!