unix

This book was highly recommended to me, but I have been a little disappointed so far. I do like the concise (2 page) sections, but following the examples is tedious. Every section has a different example and creating the raw data file to be read in using the INFILE statement takes a significant amount of time that would be better spent on actually learning SAS. This book could be improved a lot by building on just a few example data sets, or having a web page available for downloading the data.

The book also moves too slowly and covers too many initially extraneous details. Chapter 2 is almost 40 pages long and covers every imaginable way of and inputting raw data. I would rather get to the material on manipulating the data much more quickly.

Also, there are no exercises which is a big drawback. Virtually all science and mathematics texts have exercises.

In summary, I wouldn't say not to buy this book, but I think you would have to have at least one other source of information, such as someone else who knows SAS, to learn the material properly.

This book works with all versions of SAS and I found it a useful reference. It explains to you how to enter and manipulate your datasets in SAS. Also brief description of PROCs and options with each PROC. Each topic is in a separate page and all contained in about 2 pages at the most. So do not expect so much details on these procedure but if you happened to forget a syntax line, grab this book's index and the reminder is there for you. I recommend it to all SAS users.

In both my undergraduate and graduate university career, I would rarely sell my old textbooks after I had completed a class. I usually beleived that I would need to refer back to the text if I wanted to apply what I learned in class at a later date. This book was the one notable exception. It was sold the day the class that required it ended. It is too simplistic and too full of fluff to be at all useful. It may provide someone with enough information to complete a project/assignement for a very basic class, but is not advanced enough to be useful to someone in a real world situation. In fact, if the authors were a little more efficent all the material in the book could be covered in about 10 pages. As an alternative, I would recommend SAS Programming by Example by Cody and Pass. That book assumes no previous knowledge of SAS and is appropriate for beginners. However, it has a lot more substance than The Little SAS Book.

Also, such a "little" book is not worth $30. Unfortunately, SAS has always charged top dollar for its products and most of the books about SAS are expensive as well.