SAS Global Forum 2008

Two submissions were accepted for presentation at the 2008 conference of SAS Global Forum in San Antonio, TX.

The first submission (local copy; a continuation of my Pacific Northwest SAS Users Group 2007 submission) was mine alone:

With ODS DATA Step Object, SAS programmers can turn raw data into production quality reports ready for distribution. The ODS DATA Step Object is a powerful Base SAS feature (available in preproduction for 9.1.3) that is able to generate production-quality PDF reports directly since it provides SAS programmers simultaneous control over report content, layout, and formatting.

This paper tracks the re-creation of a legacy report to a completely automated and scalable SAS report using the ODS DATA Step Object. Macros are used throughout the code to reduce code volume and complexity making code maintanence and modification more palatable. The code discussed in this paper was developed with SAS 9.1.3-SP4 running under Windows XP Professional-SP2 and was developed specifically for the PDF destination, you may experience some nuances when applying these techniques to other destinations under different systems.

The second submission (local copy) by Danni Bayn and myself (I also presented this one at the Summer 2008 Twin Cities Area SAS User Group in Richfield, MN):

This paper describes a program designed to automatically generate reports on End of Course evaluations and then email them to faculty. In addition to saving many hours of tedious labor by implementing an efficient 5-minute program, the delay of feedback was shortened considerably. This allows for the reports to be used more effectively. After describing the program, highlights and ‘hiccups’ to development are discussed.