Software at MIT

Name: The SAS System
Category: Statistical Software
Last modified: Th Oct 22 2009
Problems or Questions?

Contents

• What is SAS? Where does it come from?
• SAS on Athena
• Other SAS Resources (including stock answers)
• SAS Technical Tips

Important notice (7/14/08): SAS is moving from Sun/Solaris to Linux in Summer 2008

What is the SAS System? Where does it come from?

SAS is a system for controlling data. It allows you to take data in any form and access, manage, analyze, and present according to your needs and level of computer expertise. SAS is a product of the SAS Institute Inc.

The SAS System on Athena

SAS 9.2 for Linux is now the Athena default version and may be run by typing:

        add sas
        sas &

To find out about new 9.2 features, Select "Help -> SAS Help and Documentation -> What's New in SAS 9.2" from within the online help system. The 9.x SAS documentation sets are also available at the SAS Institute.

IS&T provides limited support for SAS in the context of classes. By this we mean that:

• The Athena Consultants will help Athena users start SAS and can answer basic questions, but cannot answer more detailed ones.

There is an introductory document available called SAS on Athena. This is currently out-of-date but may still contain some useful information.

There is a list of SAS resources for professors and students.

Here are some details about SAS version and platform configuration and availability.

Other SAS Resources

• The Athena consultants maintain a few SAS stock answers
• The stock answer on converting data sets between platforms is slightly confusing. This explanation has more details.
• A summary of report writing options
• Some more SAS Stock Answers.
• The SAS Institute Inc. home page. There is information about local SAS User Groups here.
• The UNIX newsgroup comp.soft-sys.sas
• Older sets of SAS documentation are available for browsing at the Athena Consultant's Office (x3-4435), and for browsing and short-term borrowing from the Software Release Team (x3-8613), subject to availability. Note: most current SAS documents are accessible through the online documentation.

Problems or Questions?

Help with SAS
If you are affiliated with MIT, contact Athena Consulting (on Athena, type "olc") for basic help with launching the program. See also the other resources above or contact the vendor for help.

Sending bug reports
Athena users should report problems via the "sendbug" command.

Software at MIT
Questions or suggestions about availability of software on Athena should be sent to 3partysw@mit.edu.

Comments on this page
Questions or comments about this web page should be sent to acs-web@mit.edu.

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