Introduction

How to Use this Document

This document is an introduction to SAS for Windows. SAS is a large software package with scores of modules and utilities. It is impossible to present all its features in a brief document so we focus on the basics of getting started. If you do not own a personal copy of SAS for Windows, you may access the software from various UITS Student Technology Centers (STC's). Vendor-supplied documents are available for reference at the Swain Hall, Business/SPEA and Education Libraries' Reserve Collections, IUPUI University Library, and at the UITS Center for Statistical and Mathematical Computing (Stat/Math Center). Online manuals are available at the vdndor's site: http://support.sas.com/documentation/onlinedoc/91pdf/index.html. Faculty may arrange special introductory workshops for their classes in using SAS for Windows by contacting the UITS Stat/Math Center. If you want to buy a copy of SAS for Windows at an educational discount, contact the UITS Stat/Math Center.

What is SAS?

The SAS System is a comprehensive and flexible information delivery system that supports data access, data management, data analysis, and data presentation. It enables you to perform many analyses on your PCs that were once possible only on much larger machines. SAS for Windows reads data files from a variety of file formats including Excel, dBase, Lotus, and ASCII Text.

Launching SAS

The first task is to access SAS for Windows. If SAS for Windows is installed on your computer, start the Windows session and click the SAS for Windows icon. If you are accessing SAS for Windows from a computer in one of the UITS Student Technology Centers:

1. Find an available workstation.
2. Click Start → All Programs → Departmentally Sponsored → Statistics-Math → SAS 9.13 SP4.

Windows in SAS for Windows

The SAS System under the Windows environment has five basic types of windows.

Editor Window

This window allows you to write SAS programs and submit your programs to execute.

Log Window

This window displays the notes of SAS sessions, and tells you any errors, warnings after you submit your SAS programs.

Output Window

This window returns the output of results from SAS executions.

Explorer Window

This window shows SAS files and libraries in the Windows Explore like display.

Results Window

This window illustrates a table of contents of SAS Output Window.