***TESTING DO NOT REGISTER YET***

Directions

BASUG is thrilled to announce our IN-PERSON SAS Blowout!

Pre-registration by Oct 27 is required. No on-site registration or walk-ins.

The meeting will be held on Friday, October 30, at The Link in Kendall Square, Cambridge. The full-day meeting, co-hosted by SAS® and BASUG, features presenters from SAS and the SAS community, presenting on a range of SAS programming topics. We can't wait to see you! Abstracts are listed below. If you have questions, feel free to email us: registrations@basug.org.

You may purchase tickets for full day or morning/afternoon only.

While none of the presentations are designed to be ‘hands on’ trainings, you should feel free to bring your laptop and follow-along, trying some of the programming techniques discussed in the presentations.

The meeting will not be recorded and will not be live-streamed. We hope to see you in-person.

BASUG welcomes students with a 50% discount if they register by Friday, October 20.  Please email an image of your current student ID to registrations@basug.org to request the coupon code.

PRESENTATIONS

Morning Sessions

SAS Macros: Understanding, Debugging, and Error-Proofing Your Code

Carleigh Jo Crabtree (Senior Technical Training Consultant, SAS Institute Inc.)

SAS macro programs can produce unexpected results without generating clear errors in the log, making debugging difficult, to say the least. This presentation covers how SAS processes macro code, including how the word scanner, macro processor, and global symbol table interact to resolve macro variables before compilation. We then look at how special characters like ampersands and percent signs can cause unintended resolution, and how masking provide control over when and how variables resolve. From there, we cover practical error handling techniques: normalizing user input to avoid case-sensitivity issues, making macros self-documenting, and validating parameters so invalid values return clear, actionable messages. Attendees will leave with a framework for writing macros that are easier to debug, maintain, and hand off to others.

Excel In SAS - An end-to-end PROC SQL Workflow

Charu Shankar (Senior Technical Training Consultant, SAS Institute Inc.)

Excel and SAS are a powerful combination. Excel remains the tool of choice for data entry and business reporting, while SAS excels at data access, transformation, and analysis. In this session, you'll learn how to seamlessly integrate the two using a practical, end-to-end workflow.

• Metadata Discovery with SAS Dictionary Tables

• Data Integration with PROC SQL Joins

• Analyzing Excel data using PROC SQL

• Reporting Results to Excel with ODS EXCEL

Whether you're supporting spreadsheet-driven business processes or looking to streamline analytics workflows, you'll leave with practical techniques for moving data from Excel to SAS—and insights from SAS back to Excel.

Utilizing Group and Order Variables in PROC REPORT

Jane Eslinger (Senior Statistical Programmer, Emmes Group)

PROC REPORT allows the programmer to specify how a variable is to be used within the report. In fact, most of the report’s structure is determined by the usage applied to the variables from the incoming data set. This presentation focuses on the GROUP and ORDER usages. It starts with a description and comparison of each usage. Then, the presentation will demonstrate outputs using dummy variables defined as GROUP or ORDER to have the most control over the final report.

Afternoon Sessions

SAS Programming with an AI Assistant

Carleigh Jo Crabtree (Senior Technical Training Consultant, SAS Institute Inc.)

Explore how to effectively use your LLM of choice as a programming partner when writing SAS code. Learn best practices for prompting and validating results to accelerate your programming workflow. See how LLMs can assist with drafting, explaining, and refining SAS programs as we turn an idea into a full program.

One Hive, Three Languages: SAS, SQL, and Python in SAS Viya Workbench

Charu Shankar (Senior Technical Training Consultant, SAS Institute Inc.)

Using bumblebee data as a stand-in for pharmaceutical analytics, this presentation demonstrates how SAS Viya Workbench brings together SAS, PROC SQL, and PROC PYTHON for analytics and reporting. Attendees will also see how Viya Copilot can assist with code review and debugging, helping programmers work more efficiently.

Leveraging the Macro Facility in Data Simulation and Report Generation

Jane Eslinger (Senior Statistical Programmer, Emmes Group)

Simulating data is important for project setup and programming testing. The key to simulation is making the data as realistic as possible. Once data is available, either simulated or real, the next step is creating an ecosystem of macro programs to generate the desired report outputs. The first part of this presentation demonstrates leveraging project-specific inputs as macro variables to generate simulated data. The second part of the presentation will focus on creating macro programs that utilize a common structure and common macro variables. By taking a high-level view when beginning programming, you can increase efficiency and decrease rework and confusion.

Panel Discussion

Michael Salé, DPS (Associate Dean, Leo J. Meehan School of Business at Stonehill College)

Mike will moderate an engaging panel discussion featuring all of the presenters from the meeting, with time for audience questions as well.

Schedule

• 8:15 AM - 9:00 AM Registration / Breakfast
• 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM Presentations

• 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM Lunch

• 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM Presentations