SAS Functions by Example, Second Edition

This book is what on-line "help files" aspire to be when they grow up. The organization, centered around types of functions, makes it ideal for when you need to solve a problem and you can't remember (or don't know) the key word to solve the task. Like every other set of documentation, each function is presented with the name, a very short text description of its purpose, the syntax (with tables of arguments where appropriate), and examples with explanations. The examples and writing in the explanations are truly outstanding. The author gives clear short examples that are easy to follow along with common gotchas and ways to accomplish tasks better/safer. For example, in his discussion of the compress function, he talks about safe and less save ways to remove characters that have found their way into numeric variables.The second edition has a lot more examples compared to the first edition, redesigned coverage of PERL regular expressions and CALL routines, and tips on what is new in 9.2. Also, the index is better in this edition.The book is well enough written that it will help novices figure out how SAS works and there is plenty of new material even for experts (I have been teaching SAS for many years and I picked up new tricks from this edition). So, I strongly recommend it for people at all levels.

Beware - the Kindle version does not have a "hyperlinked" table of contents! I had hoped it would, even though Amazon's free sample clearly did not have that functionality. (I have a DX, so perhaps it works on newer Kindles).All I can say is: please learn from my mistake! If you want to look up a specific function, you'll have to do it through the Kindle Search tool... by typing in the function name; searching by page number is disabled. That being said, the content of book looks quite good. I'm going to return the Kindle version and get the Paperback.Bottom line: skip the Kindle version and buy the Paperback.

I love this book. Like all of Dr. Cody's books, it is well-organized, thoughtful, and clear. I took off one star for the Kindle version, because the sample output that appears in illustrations is extremely small, and nothing I do seems to make it any bigger. I like the convenience of having it on my Kindle, but I would advise others to think about getting the hard copy.

I have not read this book cover to cover and don't think it was intended to be. This is an excellent reference, which has helped me many times. Easy to follow. Good examples. While you can find many online resources, I still recommend buying it.

This is a very helpful book for SAS functions. I struggled with sas functions until I bought this book. I would highly recommend this book.

This is the most useful SAS reference manual I own. Constantly use it - often many times a day. I work for a CRO, and I need to get quick, clear answers, so that I can modify my code fast and without issues.

Great reference for a variety of tasks that would otherwise likely take a good deal of time to figure out through random searching.

good book for sas beginners

The book is not helpful or useful for people with some basic or average level of knowledge about SAS programming. I found it not very practical and helpful at all. It seemed to me that the subjects that have been discussed in this book have been drifted from somewhere or randomly chosen without any logical connection among them. If someone wants to get a quick access to a solution, it can't be helpful at all and the whole book must be studied to get a clue. I didn't find very useful examples either. The examples as well as the subjects that have been discussed are very specific and exceptional cases which are not useful for all SAS users. This book is probably good for those with the highest level of knowledge about SAS programming and need to increase their skill even better.