Thursday, 19 November 2015

SAS BASE CERTIFICATION PROGRAM DETAILS

http://www.signetsoft.com

SAS Certified Base Programmer for SAS 9 Credential.

The ideal certification for those relatively new to SAS programming or new to SAS certification

Successful candidates should have experience in programming and data management using SAS 9 and should be able to

import and export raw data files
manipulate and transform data
combine SAS data sets
create basic detail and summary reports using SAS procedures
identify and correct data, syntax and programming logic errors.

EXAM CONTENTS

REQUIRED EXAM

Candidates who earn this credential will have earned a passing score on the SAS Base Programming for SAS 9 exam. This exam is administered by SAS and Pearson VUE.

60-65 multiple-choice and short-answer questions (must achieve score of 70% correct to pass)
110 minutes to complete exam
Use exam IDA00-211; required when registering with Pearson VUE.
This exam is based on SAS 9.4

EXAM TOPICS INCLUDE:

ACCESSING DATA

Use FORMATTED and LIST input to read raw data files.
Use INFILE statement options to control processing when reading raw data files.
Use various components of an INPUT statement to process raw data files including column and line pointer controls, and trailing @ controls.
Combine SAS data sets.
Access an Excel workbook.

Creating Data Structures

Create temporary and permanent SAS data sets.
Create and manipulate SAS date values.
Export data to create standard and comma-delimited raw data files.
Control which observations and variables in a SAS data set are processed and output.

MANAGING DATA

Investigate SAS data libraries using base SAS utility procedures.
Sort observations in a SAS data set.
Conditionally execute SAS statements.
Use assignment statements in the DATA step.
Modify variable attributes using options and statements in the DATA step.
Accumulate sub-totals and totals using DATA step statements.
Use SAS functions to manipulate character data, numeric data, and SAS date values.
Use SAS functions to convert character data to numeric and vice versa.
Process data using DO LOOPS.
Process data using one-dimensional SAS arrays.
Validate and clean data.

GENERATING REPORTS

Generate list reports using the PRINT procedure.
Generate summary reports and frequency tables using base SAS procedures.
Enhance reports through the use of user-defined formats, titles, footnotes and SAS System reporting.
Generate reports using ODS statements.

HANDLING ERRORS

Identify and resolve programming logic errors.
Recognize and correct syntax errors.
Examine and resolve data errors.

EXAM PREPARATION

Books:

SAS Certification Prep Guide: Base Programming for SAS 9, Third Edition
The official guide from the SAS Certification Program that covers all of the objectives tested in the exam. Topics include importing and exporting raw data files, creating and modifying SAS data sets, and identifying and correcting data syntax and programming logic errors.

PRACTICE:

View the sample questions for this exam.
- SAS BASE Programming Sample Questions
Practice your skills with the SAS Certification Practice Exam: Base Programming for SAS 9

MORE INFORMATION:

Contact the SAS Global Certification Program at certification@sas.com or 800-727-0025.

EXAM REGISTRATION

REGISTRATION OPTIONS:

Registration with Pearson VUE can be made online or by phone only. No registration can be done within a test facility. A minimum of 24 hours is required for registration for returning candidates. First-time candidates require additional time as listed.

OnlineVisit pearsonvue.com/sas. Follow these easy steps once on the site:
- Attention first-time users:
  You must create a new Web account within Pearson VUE before you can schedule a SAS exam. This can take up to two business days based on information provided to produce your username and password needed for exam registration.

Returning users:If you have previously taken a test with Pearson VUE and created a Web account, but do not remember your sign-in information, there are links within Pearson VUE to help obtain this information.

TelephoneTo register by phone, visit pearsonvue.com/sas and select the ‘Schedule By Phone’. Numbers for your location will be provided.

TESTING LOCATIONS

For SAS-sponsored US testing, visit SAS-sponsored Testing Events in the US. For SAS-sponsored testing outside the US, please contact your local SAS office.

EXAM PRICING

Within North America and India, the fees associated with an exam offered through Pearson VUE is $180 USD.

Certification exam prices are subject to change. In some countries, different pricing and additional taxes may apply. Please visit www.pearsonvue.com/sas for exam pricing in your country.

CANCELLATION POLICY

To cancel or reschedule your test appointment, visit pearsonvue.com/sas and select ‘Cancel a Test’ or ‘Reschedule a Test.’ Tests must be canceled more than 24 hours before the scheduled exam appointment time. Canceling with less than 24 hours’ notice will forfeit your exam fee.
Customers who do not appear for a scheduled exam forfeit the full exam fee. If the exam fee was paid with a voucher, the voucher number will be invalidated and unavailable for future use.

RETAKE POLICY

Candidates may attempt each certification exam up to five times in a 12-month period, waiting a minimum of 14 days between attempts. Exam charges are incurred for each exam attempt. Exams that do not comply with this retake policy will be considered invalid and will not be eligible for refund and/or a certification credential. Once a passing score is achieved on a specific exam, no further attempts are allowed on that exam.

CANDIDATE AGREEMENT

Candidates are encouraged to review the SAS Institute Inc. Global Certification Program Candidate Agreement prior to their exam day.

EXAM DAY

What to bring: Certification candidates are required to provide two forms of identification to the testing center, including one photo identification such as a driver’s license or a valid passport. Both forms must display the candidate’s signature. If you have questions regarding acceptable forms of id, please contact www.pearsonvue.com/contact.

Arriving at the test center: Candidates should plan to arrive 15 minutes before their scheduled exam time. Candidates arriving more than 15 minutes late are not guaranteed exam availability or a refund.

Reference materials: To maintain the security of the test environment, candidates are not permitted to bring reference materials of any kind into the testing center.

Personal items: The only items allowed in the testing area are your identification. Please leave any backpacks, laptops, briefcases and other personal items at home. If you have personal items that cannot be left behind (such as purses), the testing center may have lockers available for use. No cameras, cell phones, audio players, or other electronic devices are allowed during exam sessions. Please refer to Pearson VUE Candidate Rules Agreement for more information.

All notes will be collected at the end of testing and no material may be removed from the testing event.

AFTER EXAM

SCORE REPORT

You will receive an immediate pass/fail score upon completion of your exam attempt at your testing facility. The score report will display the percentage of items in each section that you answered correctly for your exam. Please note: These section scores are calculated on a per section basis and cannot be used in determining your total score. They are provided to you for descriptive purposes only.

WELCOME E-MAIL AND CERTIFICATE

If you pass your exam and meet all requirements for this credential, you will receive an e-mail from SAS with instructions providing access to your certificate and logo through the Certification Records Management System. This e-mail will be sent to the e-mail address you provided to Pearson VUE at exam registration. Some individual firewalls may send this e-mail to your junk folder. Please allow at least one week from your exam date to receive your e-mail.

Within Certification Records Management system, your certificate can be accessed on the left navigation bar under “Printable Documents.” To print your certificate, your pop-up blocker should be disabled before clicking the “Print Now” button. Click on “Print Now” and your certificate will open in a new window where you can download and/or print.

Certain credentials require more than one exam to earn the credential. We encourage you to visit credentials and exams for more information.

PUBLIC REGISTRY OF CERTIFIED PROFESSIONALS

A Public Registry of SAS Certified Professionals is maintained within the SAS Certification Records Management system. If you do not wish for your name to appear in the Public Registry of SAS Certified Professionals, you may choose to be excluded by updating your personal information in the SAS Certification Records Management system.

( courtesy: http://www.sas.com )

SIGNETSOFT is the best Training center in Bangalore for SAS, SAS clinical, SAS projects, SAS Certification, Advanced Excel, VBA, Java, Android, MSBI, etc.

We do provide SAS OnlineTraining !

We are specialized trainers in Corporate Training.

A practical approach! and real time expert faculty, good in placement record.

mob: 9844559330

Phone: 080-41 666 550

Website: http://www.signetsoft.com

Wednesday, 7 January 2015

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2015

2015 Happy New Year Strands Line Glow Dark Background

We wish you a very HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Let this year brings you happiness, prosperity, success

and good health to you and your family!!!

SIGNETSOFT is the best Training center in Bangalore for SAS, SAS clinical, SAS projects, SAS Certification, Advanced Excel, VBA, Java, Clinical Data Management.

We do provide SAS ONLINE TRAINING !

We are here by giving you SAS introduction Online class video.

A practical approach! and real time expert faculty, good in placement record.

For details, please contact us at:

Call: 98 4455 9330

Mail: info@signetsoft.com

Web: http://www.signetsoft.com

mob: 9844559330

Phone: 080-41 666 550

Website: http://www.signetsoft.com

Saturday, 2 August 2014

What order does PROC SQL do your work?

To optimize a Structured Query Language (SQL), the database professional must be friend this order and perhaps even embrace it.

The best onlie and class room training center for SAS, Signetsoft, Bangalore.

Who is your best friend? I’m talking about the order in which SQL processes your statements. Simply put, in what order does SQL do your work? (From my previous post you know another SQL rule, the order in which YOU submit statements to SQL.) I just want us to be clear that these are two very different orders.

First up, what makes SQL different from other programming languages? It’s the way SQL processes code. Most programming languages including SAS start at the top of your code and make their way to the bottom. However, SQL processes them in a unique order, known as Logical Query Processing Phase. This phase (also referred to as a clause) generates a series of virtual tables with each virtual table feeding into the next clause or phase. And no, we can’t view these virtual tables, sorry about that. That’s just the way SQL works!

When I shared the processing order with my recent SQL1 class, Lindsay Jacks of Cancer Care Ontario asked if I would blog about it. I hope this sharing will help breakdown any surprises you may expect to see when you submit SAS code. And in turn help in understanding how to optimize SQL queries.

Here then is the logical query processing phase order.

1. FROM

The 1st clause SQL processes is the FROM. It tells SQL where to grab your tables from. Given that this clause is the first to execute, it’s also our first chance to boil down your table sizes. From an efficiency perspective, this is why we may need to think about putting as many ON clauses as possible on JOINs versus putting them on the WHERE clause.

2. WHERE

The 2nd clause SQL processes is the WHERE. The WHERE clause pre-processes data. It selects just the rows that meet the WHERE criteria. The results of WHERE clause processing are stored in an intermediate table.

SQL coders who have sometimes been surprised to see the WHERE clause fail may now have their answer. In the example that follows, the WHERE has no idea how to filter Bonus and doesn’t know what Bonus means. Just because we constructed Bonus on the SELECT doesn’t mean anything to the WHERE as the SELECT is one of the last clauses in the processing order & yet to be looked at by SQL. Consider the following example where the Log rightly complains:

43     /* Try to subset by referencing a new column with its alias */
44   proc sql;
45      select Employee_ID, Employee_Gender, Salary,
46             Salary * .10 as Bonus
47         from orion.Employee_payroll
48         where Bonus < 3000;
ERROR: The following columns were not found in the contributing tables: Bonus.
49   quit;
NOTE: The SAS System stopped processing this step because of errors.
NOTE: PROCEDURE SQL used (Total process time):
      real time           0.01 seconds
      cpu time            0.01 seconds

3. GROUP BY

The 3rd clause SQL processes is the GROUP BY. The role of the GROUP BY is to get your data into groups. To do this grouping, sometimes SQL may need to order your data, but there’s no guarantee that data will be in ascending or descending order. Explicitly placing an ORDER BY clause is our only guarantee that data will be in order.

4. HAVING

The 4th clause SQL processes is the HAVING. This clause subsets the groups created by the GROUP BY clause based on the HAVING clause predicates, and, like the WHERE clause, builds an intermediate table.

5. SELECT

The 5th clause SQL processes is the SELECT. This is what tells SQL what columns to pull into the query, existing or calculated. Note: Columns are calculated on the SELECT only one time regardless of how often they are referenced, whether on the WHERE (with the calculated keyword) or the ORDER BY (without the calculated keyword). The SELECT statement is able to use the results of anything it calculated in other instances using the same calculation.

6. ORDER BY

The 6th clause SQL processes is the ORDER BY. By now it should come as no surprise that the ORDER BY has access to columns created on the SELECT but the WHERE doesn’t (see 2 above to as a reminder).

Any earlier confusion about the calculated SELECT columns (see 2 again) not being available in the WHERE clause, but available in the ORDER BY clause would now make perfect sense. Because the SELECT is executed before the ORDER BY, all columns in the SELECT will be available at the time of ORDER BY execution. So the following code works perfectly:

68   proc sql;
69      select Employee_ID, Employee_Gender, salary,
70             Salary * .10 as Bonus
71         from orion.Employee_payroll
72         order by 4;
73   quit;
NOTE: PROCEDURE SQL used (Total process time):
      real time           0.03 seconds
      cpu time            0.03 seconds

Itzik Ben-Gan makes a good point with a poster (i can provide in my next post) that captures the processing order.

Why do I call this processing order your best friend in the database world? Because we have likely at some time come across never ending queries and not known how to optimize. Here then is a starting point for us to try to keep in mind next time we submit a query, so we can modify the way we optimize SQL queries.

(courtesy : sasblogs)

www.signetsoft.com

The best class room and online training center for SAS, Signetsoft, Bangalore.

All the classes are fully practical and 100% job oriented.

We do provide training in SAS/BASE and Advanced.

Corporate / Class room / Online / weekend / weekdays / fast track trainings are available.

Attend for demo and 1st day class then you can come to one decision on payment of fee.

SAS courses available for Certification, Internship, as an academic project etc…

Signetsoft is specialized in SAS CLASS ROOM and ONLINE training classes.

And SIGNETSOFT is located in Marathahalli, Bangalore. If it is not possible due to distance and traffic to reach, then we do provide ONLINE classes too.

So far we had given classes for abroad students (Majorly USA, UK, Canada, Australia, Singapore, Dubai, etc).

Especially for students from Malleswaram, Jayanagar, JP Nagar we do provide special ONLINE batches.

And we are happy to announce that very soon we are going to open new branches in JP Nagar and Malleswaram.

sas training — SAS training center (Signetsoft)

Contact us:

www.signetsoft.com

info@signetsoft.com

mob: 98 4455 9330

Ph: 080-41 666 550

SIGNETSOFT is the best Training center in Bangalore for SAS, SAS clinical, SAS projects, SAS Certification, Advanced Excel, VBA, Java, Clinical Data Management.

A practical approach! and real time expert faculty, good in placement record.

mob: 9844559330

Phone: 080-6547 2060

Website: http://www.signetsoft.com

Thanks for visiting our blog.

Wednesday, 23 July 2014

The better Way to become THE BEST in SAS

SAS is an analytical tool, programming language, data manipulation tool, reporting tool. So to become the BEST is SAS, need the following:

As a language, it needs practice for logical thinking
As an analytical tool, it needs much practice with multiple case studies
As a data manipulation tool, it needs much practice on case study with real data
As a reporting tool, it needs much practice with multiple reporting scenarios

Are all the above needs are possible by the following?

Explanation on a white board by a SAS trainer (who doesn’t have practical expose in the industry)
2 to 24 Hrs of lab facility (with assistance of a senior student who recently finished his SAS course there itself)
One photo copy of the some SAS prescribed book (like Little SAS, SAS by example etc.)
One dummy / sample CV (to prepare your CV).
Sample interview questions (the same which are available in internet from past 10 years)

—NO—

It is not at all enough!!!

Now a days in the interview, you won’t get questions like:

What are INFILE / INPUT?
What is the difference between Missover and Truncover?
How to sort the data in SAS?
How to remove the duplicates in SAS?
What is merge?
What Proc Append will do?
What ODS stands for?
How to extract data from EXCEL to SAS?
What are the types of macro variables?
Difference between NODUP and NODUPKEY

The above sample questions are almost 4 to 5 years back were there.

Now the companies are expecting the practical scenarios.

No definitions!

No formulas!!

No syntaxes!!!

The required things are:

Case studies, Scenarios, Comparisons, Macro / Automation related…etc.

Now, some sample questions for the base level (with SAS certification)

How to take all the duplicate records into a SAS data set?
NODUPREC vs DISTINCT *
X=month(today()); put x date9. ; What is x value printed in log?
How can I save all my log /output into some external file automatically?
%LET vs Call Symput
What is the minimum length of a macro variable?
Where macro variable does gets stored?
How can I use a variable which is created in a data step into another data step?
How do you deal with huge data?
How can you speed up your code execution?

If you are trying to learn SAS to get a job, then learn SAS as a PRACTICAL subject. Then only you can answer all the above kind of questions by yourself.

If you are experienced SAS programmer, then the questions will be different. The standards might be increased and sometimes they may ask same tricky questions (just to clarify whether you have real time experience or not in SAS)

Some sample questions:

How can I take duplicate records in to SAS data set except first and last of each unique value?
How can I take all the variable names of the data set into another SAS data set variable?
How can I get the list of files existing in the physical directory?
How can I export multiple SAS datasets into an EXCEL workbook?
Call Symput Vs Call Symputx? And what is the minimum length of a macro variable?
Can you write a macro inside another macro?
How many macros you will create a day?
What is the maximum size of data that you handled? And how much time it will take to process the data?
To whom do you report?
How do you get your daily work?

And after your SAS course if you are planning to learn a SAS Project you must be able to answer all the above questions.

If not, think about the another Trainer/ Training institute

Do not compromise for the fee….! What is the use of learning even if it taught for free and you can’t get the Job with it?

SO….try for SAS JOB COURSE, NOT just for SAS COURSE!!!

Just by seeing the Face Book likes on the website, don’t fall in their magic!!!
If the training centers are not allowing you for demo & 1st class before paying the fee then better you think twice…!

At least have the opinion with other old students.
If they say “OK we can proceed” then that’s not enough for your goal.
If they say “YES, it is perfect” then you can agree…!
Otherwise just attend the demo or the 1st class to decide and then pay the fee…!

SO FINALLY TO BECOME THE BEST IN SAS, YOU NEED:

Just copying from white board is not enough.

100% practical approach (Each and every program you need to execute)

No use of 24 Hrs lab facility

you need to do it practically in class itself!

Photocopy of SAS book is not enough

In that all the topics must be covered in your syllabus and you must have your class examples/programs for all those topics.

Dummy /sample CV is not enough

You must specify / highlight your SAS and other skills in your CV.

And also remember you are responsible for each and every term/keyword in your CV

Sample interview questions are not enough

You need to have mock interviews to know where you are

If you can get all the above, then you can join in that SAS training center with 100% confidence.

(Some training centers are giving SAS course even for Rs.5,000/- with 25% of subject. And some other famous centers are charging in lacks of rupees with 50% of subject. So irrespective of fee structure, check for the quality.

If the fee is too low(6k, 8k,..), obviously you can’t expect quality.

If it is too high (more than one lakh also, don’t believe blindly.)

Just take actual opinion of old students or attend the classes yourself.

And now we want to tell you one thing.

We very much happy and proud to say that, we do provide the above quality of training in our SIGNETSOFT.

SIGNETSOFT is not just a training institute. It’s a division of DAMA SIGNET SOLUTIONS Private Limited company.

DAMA SIGNET SOLUTIONS is a consulting and software development company.

We do provide training in SAS/BASE and Advanced.

Corporate / Class room / Online / weekend / weekdays / fast track trainings are available.

Attend for demo and 1st day class then you can come to one decision on payment of fee.

SAS courses available for Certification, Internship, as an academic project etc…

Signetsoft is specialized in SAS CLASS ROOM and ONLINE training classes.

And SIGNETSOFT is located in Marathahalli, Bangalore. If it is not possible due to distance and traffic to reach, then we do provide ONLINE classes too.

So far we had given classes for abroad students (Majorly USA, UK, Canada, Australia, Singapore, Dubai, etc).

Especially for students from Malleswaram, Jayanagar, JP Nagar we do provide special ONLINE batches.

And we are happy to announce that very soon we are going to open new branches in JP Nagar and Malleswaram.

Contact us:

www.signetsoft.com

info@signetsoft.com

mob: 98 4455 9330

Ph: 080-41 666 550