| Bart Jablonski |
When working with SAS code, especially with a complex one, there is a moment when you decide to break it into small
pieces. You create separate files for macros, formats/informats, for functions or data too. Eventually the code is ready
and tested, and sooner or later you will want to share it with another SAS programmer. You have developed a program
using local PC SAS, but the deployment is on a server with a different OS. Your code is complex (with dependencies
such as multiple macros, formats, datasets, etc.) and is difficult to share. Often when you try to share code, the receiver
will quickly encounter an error because of a missing macro, missing format, or whatever...small challenge, isn't it? In this
presentation we discuss a solution to the problem - the idea of SAS Packages, an answer to a reflection:
Modern data
focused languages, like R or Python, have vast ecosystems for building packages. Those environments allow their users
to share their ideas, inventions, and code in an easy, almost seamless way. Why doesn't SAS, with its profound and
historically well-established impact on data analysis, embrace such a marvelous idea?
We discuss what are SAS
Packages, how to use and develop them, and how to make code-sharing a piece of cake. And of course what
opportunities, possibilities, and benefits SAS Packages bring to the community of SAS programmers. |