HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.sas-l
Date:         Wed, 9 Sep 1992 16:30:44 EST
Reply-To:     iqti400@INDYCMS.IUPUI.EDU
From:         macphil <IQTI400@INDYCMS.IUPUI.EDU>
Subject:      Big MVS Jobs
Comments: To: sas <sas-l@uga.cc.uga.edu>

This problem is occuring on our MVS guest in a 16M V=R region for both
6.06 and 6.07.  Unfortunately, time is of the essence to get this
job running.

We're constantly receiving a User 1310 abend, no matter how we adjust
the MEMSIZE, etc. parms.  We're running the JCL in an initiator which
has no limits for regionsize, etc.

The dataset is about 800K observations, 60 variables.

Any ideas as to what we can do to get around this?

Thanx in advance!

------------------------------------------------------------------------
"The lesser of two evils is still evil." - Winston Churchill

MacPhil / iqti400@indycms.bitnet / iqti400@indycms.iupui.edu
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.sas-l
Date:         Thu, 10 Sep 1992 09:50:48 -0400
Reply-To:     "Paul A. Thompson" <pat@po.CWRU.Edu>
From:         "Paul A. Thompson" <pat@PO.CWRU.EDU>
Subject:      Re: numbers in SAS
Comments: To: KLASSEN%UVVM.BITNET@VTVM2.CC.VT.EDU
Comments: cc: sas-l@vtvm2.cc.vt.edu, pat@slc10.INS.CWRU.Edu

>If a decimal value is stored with even 16 or 32 or 64 bytes,
>the stored binary-value may *still* not match the external decimal-value!
>
>>Remember there are also hidden comparisons which can occur in procedures,
>>such as determining whether observations are in the same BY-group or not.
>
>This is the only good point in your answer!
>Woe on anybody who chooses to use non-integer-valued variables
>in BY-group processing!
>
>I suppose that the extreme argument is that any statistical package
>should never hand the user a loaded gun, in order to prevent the user
>from shooting his/her own foot.  Balderdash!
>
There are two forms of comparisons.  Your comments refer only to
variable-constant comparisons.  In those cases, I tend to agree with you.
However, Mr. Norton's comments clearly dealt with variable-variable
comparisons.  In such cases, you are incorrect.  In variable-variable
comparisons, a decimal encoded with length=2 compared with a decimal
encoded with length=8 will clearly result in inappropriate comparisons.
However, the same level of decimal-binary conversion difficulties will
occur with two variables of the same length.  Thus, a comparison will
have a consistent result, if all variables are of LENGTH 8.

I personally would NEVER attempt to store a decimal in
a length shorter than 8; as the SAS Language Guide for Personal computers
version 6.03 (1988) states (p. 197); "Exact decimal fractions, such as .3,
are not necessarily exact fractions in base-16 representations.  This
situation can create difficulties. ...
Each value of A is initially moved into an 8-byte field during the DATA step.
When the value is moved to the SAS data set, the last 5 bytes of the value
are dropped.  Then, when the value is used ... again brought up to 8 bytes
by appending nonsignificant zeros.  ...
The discussion of truncation problems applies to data values that are
not whole numbers (integers).  When a variable's values are all integers,
you can safely use the LENGTH statement..."

I don't think anything I can say can be clearer.  Use of the LENGTH statement
"wouldn't be prudent" for non-integers.  But, it's your data...

--
Paul Thompson, Ph.D.  |  Department of Psychiatry  |  (216) 844-7463
Case Western Reserve University  | Cleveland, OH  44106
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When I hear "family values," I reach for my revolver. - paraphrasing Trotsky
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.sas-l
Date:         Wed, 9 Sep 1992 12:06:33 CDT
Reply-To:     AB02000 <AB02@SIUEMUS.BITNET>
From:         AB02000 <AB02@SIUEMUS.BITNET>
Subject:      Freq. & percent

Hello Folks
           Please help me to solve the following problem. I have to
follow a group of students for about 20 quarters. Say Q1-Q20 and
Q1 being the base quarter. For each subsequent quarter I have to
determine the number of students retained as a percent of the base
Quarter Q1. How can I obtain using sas the percentage of the base
for each subsequent quarter and print it in a neat fashion. Please note
that Q1 to Q20 are twenty data sets.

Thank you.

Rex W. G. Fernando        ab02@siuemus.bitnet
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.sas-l
Date:         Thu, 3 Sep 1992 13:09:21 PDT
Reply-To:     "P. Oldenkamp 5-4481" <oldenkmp@ESPRESSO.BOEING.COM>
From:         "P. Oldenkamp 5-4481" <oldenkmp@ESPRESSO.BOEING.COM>
Subject:      Re: SAS Futures / IBM's Book Manager
Comments: To: SAS-L@uga.cc.uga.edu, JOE%OREGON.BITNET@uga.cc.uga.edu

----------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENT:  Comment
REL/PLTF: All
E-ADDR:   oldenkmp@ESPRESSO.boeing.com
NAME:     Paul OldenKamp
PHONE:    206-865-4481
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Deb Cannon brought up the subject of online documentation for SAS after
seeing the IBM Book Manager product.  I am also pleased with it as it
has eliminated my use of paper IBM documentation.

Sun Microsystems has the right idea in this area with their Answerbook
and SunSolve products.  SI should do something similar but is lagging
behind the other vendors.

Phil Gallagher and Joe St Sauver both commented that providing documen-
tation online would decrease SI's revenue but IMHO this is incorrect.
The value in SAS documentation is in the information, not in the bulk
of the paper.  Making the documentation easier to use would increase
its value and people would be willing to actually pay more for online
manuals than paper ones.  I don't think it would cost more to manufacture
CD's than it does to print and ship paper manuals.

The only thing I can use the paper manuals for that cannot be done better
by online documentation is as a monitor stand.  That's where my version
5 manuals are right now.

Actually, if its more profitable to provide information on paper than
online why not provide the whole SAS System that way?  One could print
up the binary code in several boxes of manuals and then the customers
could key it all in as part of the installation process. ;-)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
	       //  Paul OldenKamp
	      //   BCS Research and Technology          .
	     //    P. O. Box 24346, MS 7L-21            |\
	    //     Seattle, WA   98124-0346             | \____oo_
	   //==========================================((__|  /___>
	  //       ___ ___ ___ ___     __                  | //
	 //       /__//  //__  /  /\ //  _                 |//
	//       /__//__//__ _/_ /  //__/                  ''
       //
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU
X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.2 PL16]
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.sas-l
Date:         Fri, 4 Sep 1992 11:55:42 CDT
Reply-To:     "R. Snyder" <rsnyder@LOBBY.TI.COM>
From:         "R. Snyder" <rsnyder@LOBBY.TI.COM>
Subject: Re: Integer to Character Conversion
Comments: To: Joel Oguete <exujoel@exu.ericsson.se>
Comments: cc: sas-l@uga.cc.uga.edu
              at Sep 4, 92 10:10 am

SUBJECT:   Integer to Character Conversion
SUMMARY:   Summary of responses
REL/PLTF:  6.07/HP300
E-ADDR:    rsnyder@lobby.ti.com
NAME:      Bob Snyder
COMPANY:   Texas Instruments, Sherman, TX
PHONE:     (903) 868-5799
FAX:       (903) 868-7240

The Question:

> This is embarrassing. I can't remember how to turn an integer into an ascii
> character. char = put( 65, ???. ) where char winds up being equal to 'A'.
> The idea is to deal with characters like a tab or a line feed.
>
> Thanks,
> Bob
>
I would like to thank everyone who resonded to my question. I knew that I had
done this befor and was going nuts.  Kernon Gibes was able to remind me of the
function I had used before, byte().  Needless to say, a couple of interesting
and useful methods popped up and are included below.

Bob

============================================================================
Bob,

The list is going crazy today so I'm sending this just to you.

It's:

   char = byte( 65 );

or whatever.

Regards,

Kernon Gibes
Internet: gibes@swirl.monsanto.com

============================================================================
I think you want:   char = PUT(x,IB1.);

Tim Dorcey                        BITNET:   TCD@CORNELLC
Statistical Software Consultant   Internet: TCD@CORNELLC.CIT.CORNELL.EDU
Cornell Information Technologies  Phone:    (607) 255-5715
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY  14853

============================================================================
I thought that there was an easier/less convoluted way, but couldn't find it.
Please let me know if someone finds a better answer.


This does work though:

char=input(put(65,binary8.),$binary8.);

                ^               ^
                |               |
                |               |
        convert 65 to binary    |
                                |
                        convert binary to character value


test program:

data temp;
char=input(put(65,binary8.),$binary8.);
run;

proc print;
run;


Joel Oguete
Ericsson Network System Inc.
Richardson, TX
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.sas-l
Date:         Mon, 14 Sep 1992 12:36:22 EDT
Reply-To:     Greg Nelson <GNELSON@UGA.BITNET>
From:         Greg Nelson <GNELSON@UGA.BITNET>
Subject:      QFD Research
Comments: To: sas-l@UGA.BITNET, spssx-l@UGA.BITNET, stat-l@mcgill1.BITNET

Has anyone heard of a method of packaging design research which uses
something called a QFD chart?

Thanks in advance..

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   Greg Nelson                       Bitnet:  gnelson@uga
   UCNS - Client Services             Phone:  (706) 542-5359
   The Unviersity of Georgia       Internet:  gnelson@uga.cc.uga.edu

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU
Organization: University of Missouri-Columbia Campus Computing, 314-882-2000
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.sas-l
Date:         Fri, 4 Sep 1992 13:22:35 CDT
Reply-To:     Margie Gurwit <CCMARGIE@MIZZOU1.BITNET>
From:         Margie Gurwit <CCMARGIE@MIZZOU1.BITNET>
Subject: MY 2-cents re: SAS Manuals On-Line

I just couldn't resist putting in my 2-cents worth in the discussion
of getting the SAS manuals on-line...

In principle it sounds like a great idea -- no more board feet of SAS
manuals on my bookshelves, but wait...  Will the general/casual SAS
user ever look at it?  It seems like I have a hard enough time now
convincing the SAS users here at MU to pick up a book much less to
look at the books on-line; the help files are there now and they don't
look at them.

Another thing that I can see happening if the manuals were put on-line
is people will print off copies for themselves.  Which is great!  But we
have then transferred the cost of the manuals from source to another.
They will print off copies each time they need some little thing and
since it is "just" a computer printout they will trash it when they are
finished with it.  Then, the next time they need it they will print it out
again.  What a  waste of paper!  We'd never think about doing that with
a book.

We have IBM's BookManager installed here with the VM/ESA manuals on it.
Oh, its SLOW!!  I don't know if it is just our isntallation of it and
our machine usage is quite high...but it is terrible, I couldn't with a
good consience recommend it to anyone.

I also agree with Deb Cannon that in order to answer many questions you
have to get out all of your SAS manauals!  I don't see why SAS can't
write consice explainations so we don't have to go through all the books
to find that key piece of information we are looking for.

Margie Gurwit
Campus Computing Help Desk
University of Missouri-Columbia
From: macq@miguel.llnl.gov (Don MacQueen)
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.sas-l
Subject: Re: On-line documentation
Date: 9 Sep 92 16:26:13 GMT
Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Having read several pros and cons of online documentation,
it is clear that it would be good for some of us, and
bad for others of us.

It seems to me that having the option of either would be ideal.
From the point of view of marketing, perhaps SAS could offer
us a choice for which we want included with our license fees,
and an extra charge option for the other.
-- 
---------------------------------------------------
Don MacQueen                   macq@miguel.llnl.gov
Lawrence Livermore Nat. Lab.
7000 East Ave., L-307          (510) 423-1062
Livermore, CA 94550
---------------------------------------------------
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.sas-l
Date:         Thu, 10 Sep 1992 15:00:24 -0700
Reply-To:     Peter Kretzman <peterk@MIS.CORP.MCCAW.COM>
From:         Peter Kretzman <peterk@MIS.CORP.MCCAW.COM>
Subject:      Re: numeric variables
Comments: To: SAS-L@uga.cc.uga.edu

Philip Tejera writes:

>        That is, in the middle(!) of the various quoted sentences is
>a paragraph whose essence is:
>   "Although you should be aware of problems like these, using
>single
>precision storage of 4 bytes does give you 6 significant digits.
>This
>storage is sufficient for most applications. Thus, using a default
>length of 4 to store numeric values when space is an important
>consideration is usually safe."


I believe that in the other quoted sentences, the Institute was
simply "playing it safe."  Indeed, in BY-group processing, variable
comparisons, etc., there are numerous ways to shoot yourself
mightily in the foot if you are using less than length 8 variables.
It's safer for the Institute to tell people simply not to do that,
than to impart all the nuances one must consider if you do.

Given all that, I must say that I have ALWAYS made successful use of
length 4 variables, even with decimals, whenever I am simply
concerned with retaining the <n> number of significant digits
mentioned by Philip.  For example, when keeping electrical load data
(kW readings, say one per half hour), I didn't need much precision,
and I certainly wasn't ever testing for exact values.  Moreover,
BY-group processing, practically by definition, is for categories,
NOT data per se, and categories should be stored in character
variables anyway.  The performance boost you get from using length 4
variables is _significant_, and I believe that it's somewhat of a
disservice to folks to insist that they always use length 8.

Peter Kretzman
McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc.
(206) 828-1344
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.sas-l
From: bemery@dante.nmsu.edu (Bryan Emery)
Subject: Using FORMCHAR option with PROC TABULATE and Postscript
Followup-To: poster
Organization: New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 15:25:10 GMT

I would like to be able to get the nice smooth graphics characters 
around my boxes in PROC TABULATE when printed to my POSTSCRIPT
printer.  The SAS PROCEDURES manual doesn't say much about what
to use and I don't seem to have a copy of the Tabulate manual.

Does anyone know off hand what string to use for this?  Thanks!!
Please reply by e-mail if possible.  I will post a response if there
is interest (and if I get an answer).

Bryan Emery
Computer Systems Analyst
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU
X-Envelope-to: SAS-L@OHSTVMA.BITNET
X-VMS-To: IN%"SAS-L@OHSTVMA.BITNET"
X-VMS-Cc: ADROSEN
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.sas-l
Date:         Thu, 10 Sep 1992 22:59:00 EST
Reply-To:     "Allan D. Rosen (412)624-0418" <ADROSEN@PITTVMS.BITNET>
From:         "Allan D. Rosen (412)624-0418" <ADROSEN@PITTVMS.BITNET>
Subject:      More Benchmarks for SAS under OS/2

-----------------------------------------------------
Content:  Continuing Discussion
SUMMARY:  More Benchmarks for SAS under OS/2
E-ADDR:   ADROSEN@vms.cis.pitt.edu
NAME:     Allan Rosen
ADDR:     University of Pittsburgh
-------------------------------------------------------

I have some benchmark results to add to what Joe Svec provided for SAS under
OS/2.
I have included below:
  1. Table describing the computing environments.
  2. Table of comparisons.
  3. The benchmark program.

Please note that one of the tests includes results for two sessions which were
run almost simultaneously. After submitting each session in sequence,
I opened up OS/2's Window List so that neither SAS session had
any preference by the operating system.

-----------------------------------------------------
            System 1              System 2
OS          OS/2 1.3              OS/2 2.0
SAS         SAS 6.06              SAS 6.06
Vendor                            Gateway
Chip        386 25MHz DX2         486 50MHz DX2
Bus         ISA                   EISA
RAM         16MB                  16MB 70ns RAM
HD          330MB SCSI            340MB Maxtor SCSI(15ms)
Controller  Western Digital       Adaptec 1742A SCSI EISA
            7000 FASST SCSI
Tester      Joe Svec              Allan Rosen
            "Svec@ACT-ACT6-PO.    "ADROSEN@vms.cis.pitt.edu"
             ACT.ORG"
-----------------------------------------------------
system #   data step 1     data step 2   proc   proc
and mode   write to file   read file     sort   reg
1  batch     12.16            6.90       4.50   5.53
2  batch      5.12            2.85       3.22   3.00
2  DMS        3.85            3.50       3.25   2.25

2  DMS
   session1   9.59            6.08       2.77   6.15
   session2   8.52            7.59       5.00   3.16
----------------------------------------------------
* benchmrk.sas *;

           filename dataf 'c:\test.sas';

           data _null_;
              file datf;
              do a='c', 'b', 'a';
                 do x=1 to 1000;
                    y=4+3*x+rannor(0); put a x y;
                 end;
              end;
           run;

           data t1;
              infile datf;
              length a $ 1;
              input a x y;
              x2=x*x;
              ia=0; ib=0; ic=0;
              select(a);
                 when('a') ia=1;
                 when('b') ib=1;
                 when('c') ic=1;
                 otherwise;
              end;
           run;

           proc sort data=t1;
              by a;
           run;

           proc reg;
              model y=x;
              model y=ia ib ic x x2 /noint;
run;
quit;
-------------------------------------------------------

Allan Rosen
University of Pittsburgh
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.sas-l
Date:         Mon, 14 Sep 1992 08:53:56 PDT
Reply-To:     Ben Conner <bconner@NETCOM.COM>
From:         Ben Conner <bconner@NETCOM.COM>
Subject:      DB2EXT problem?
Comments: To: sas-l@uga.cc.uga.edu

Hi Folks,

Under IBM MVS SAS 6.07, the DB2EXT proc seems to have a problem when zero rows
are selected--it returns an error condition and fails to execute the RENAME
statement.  This causes subsequent code to fail.  Is this something we've done
in our setup, or is there a fix for this?

Thanks much!

--Ben Conner
  Southern California Edison
  (714) 368-8513
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.sas-l
Date:         Wed, 9 Sep 1992 16:43:37 -0400
Reply-To:     alderton@nprdc.navy.mil
From:         David Alderton <alderton@NPRDC.NAVY.MIL>
Subject:      numbers in SAS -- thanks
Comments: To: SAS-L@uga.cc.uga.edu

Earlier I asked how numbers were stored in SAS because I was trying
to save space running SAS 5.18 under CMS.  I was concerned about
losing accuracy by defining numbers with too short a length.

This came up because recently I read in a flat file that was about
34 Mb and created a SAS dataset that was nearly 4 times that large!
The problem was that every variable was a number and was saved
as 8 bytes.  I recreated the dataset saving the numbers with length=2,
since all were INTEGERS between 0 and 99.  This reduced the size of the
SAS dataset to under 10 Mb.

Now I'm getting ready to read files that are (collectively) even larger
and I certainly don't have enough space.  My quandry was that many of
the numbers in the new files are reals or integers larger than those
I had dealt with previously and was afraid I would truncate them.

Thanks to everyone for their help, especially Melvin Klassen and
Peter Rikard who provided detailed explanations about representing
numbers.  But I have to admit, I'm still a little confused about how
decimal values (like 999.786) are stored.  As things turned out, I used
length=2 for small integers, 3 for larger integers, 4 for proportions
(i.e., proportion correct rounded to 3 decimal places in the source file),
and used the default (8) for reaction times (measured to the millisecond,
e.g., 10.297).

I found no numeric differences between files read using length and those
using the default lengths.  I did however manage a 48% space savings.

Thanks again,
   David (alderton@nprdc.navy.mil)
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.sas-l
From: amead@s.psych.uiuc.edu (Alan Mead)
Subject: PROC CALIS versus PROC FACTOR
Organization: UIUC Department of Psychology
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1992 23:55:15 GMT

Has anyone used proc CALIS?  IT's new to v6.04 and we're using it
instead of LISREL or the like for a class...  We're supposed to "learn
it" in an hour next tuesday.  I'm wondering if this is realistic?  I'm
not entirely clear on what "learn it" means, but I believe we will be
fitting the "common factor" model to data from Davis.

Thanks.

-alan mead
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU
From: bondir@vaxb.gbus.virginia.edu (RICHARD BONDI)
Subject: Wanted: Hard Disk (SCSI?) for Apple II
Keywords: hard disk apple ii
Organization: Darden Center, University of Virginia
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1992 01:26:22 GMT

Will pay any reasonable price, from anywhere in the world.  Please send email
to rsb5c@Virginia.edu.

Needed ASAP!!
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU
From: BALAURO@SLACVM.SLAC.STANFORD.EDU
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.apple2-l
Subject: PROBLEM!! CANNOT REMOVE TIME-BOMB DISPLAY
Date: 10 Sep 92 21:35:33 GMT
Organization: Stanford Linear Accelerator Center

ON THE SCREEN OF MY POWERBOOK 170 IS A DISPLAY OF A TIME BOMB.  COULD
SOMEONE INSTRUCT ME HOW TO EXIT FROM THIS?  THANK YOU.
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU
From: eeigcn@EEIUC.ERICSSON.SE (Gerry Callaghan)
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.biosph-l
Subject: Bio-Gas
Date: 13 Sep 92 12:51:57 GMT
Reply-To: Gerry Callaghan <eeigcn@EEIUC.ERICSSON.SE>
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU

Hello People,
Does anyone know of a mailing list devoted to Bio-gas?

Thats the anarobic digestion of organic material to produce combustible
methane gas. The spent slurry is also a good fertiliser and best of all
it reduces runoff into ground water sources. Thats a major consideration
in the area of Ireland where I live.

Its much in use in village power schemes in India I understand.
Any information that anyone would like to pass on would be most appreciated.
I have a group of 13 year olds most interested in doing a science project
on the subject!

Thanks again,

Gerry Callaghan
eeigcn@eeiuc.ericsson.se
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU