Statistical Analysis Software (SAS)
SAS is one of the most popular programming software for data analysis. Data management, data mining, report writing, statistical analysis, business modeling, application development, and data warehousing are the multiple uses of this software. SAS is an asset in many job markets. It is tagged ‘leader’ in Advanced Analytics Platforms as per Gartner 2019 Magic Quadrant for Data Science & Machine Learning Platforms.
Why SAS is popular in the job market?
SAS has more than 40,000 customers worldwide and holds the largest market share in advanced analytics. It has been tagged as ‘leader’ consistently for the last 6 consecutive years in advanced analytics platforms. In the finance (BFSI) industry, SAS retains 1st spot and is being used as a primary tool for data manipulation and predictive modeling.
Data Security – Because of unparalleled data security provided by SAS software, it is leading the analytics software industry in the BFSI sector.
Tech Customer Support – SAS provides one of the best tech supports. If you have a problem with anything related to SAS whether it is installation-related issues or clarity in any of SAS functions and procedures, they have both online and offline communities to support you.
Detailed Documentation – SAS documentation is very flexible, simple, and detailed as compared to other open-source software like R and Python.
Memory Storage Management – SAS can store datasets on the hard drive and process bigger data set than the size of your RAM.
Stable Software: All the functions and procedures of the previous software version are supported in new SAS versions. The price of a software license is a peanut to a bank or pharmaceutical company.
Heritage System – Many banks are habitat using SAS since they are using it for the last 20-30 years and they have automated the whole process of analysis and have written millions of lines of working code. To change all the stable reporting system from SAS to R/Python, it may require significant additional cost.
SAS Modules
While you install SAS software, it has several in-built frameworks and modules which are designed for various analytics and reporting purposes. Some of the general SAS modules or components are listed below:
Base SAS – It is the most commonly used SAS module. It can be used for data manipulation such as filtering data, selecting, renaming or removing columns, reshaping data, etc.
SAS/STAT – It works on popular statistical techniques such as Hypothesis Testing, Linear and Logistic Regression, Principal Component Analysis, etc.
SAS/ACCESS – It lets you read data from databases such as Teradata, SQL Server, Oracle DB2, etc.
SAS/GRAPH – You can make simple and complex graphs using this component.
SAS/ETS – You can measure and perform time series forecasting such as ARIMA, Exponential Smoothing, Moving Average, etc. using this module.
Advantages of SAS
Here are some of the pros of SAS Programming Language:
Easy to learn
SAS Syntax is very easy to learn. It can be learned easily by anyone without any programming skills. Coding is in the form of simple statements. It’s like instructing a machine what to do.
Ability to handle large database
SAS has a strong potential to handle large databases very easily.
Easy to debug
SAS is a very comprehensible language. The process of debugging is easy. Now we can easily understand and rectify the error that the log window clearly states.
Tested algorithms
Developers test and analyze the algorithm completely to implement in SAS. Each and every version of SAS is first tested in a controlled environment, before released. This happens only because SAS is a closed source language.
SAS Customer support
SAS belonging to an organization performs proper monitoring. It is like a complete organization. It has very spontaneous customer support. As SAS is a secured and paid source tool, it can only be edited by the SAS organization. No external adulteration is possible. SAS customer support handles all the problems.
Data Security
Data in SAS is completely secured. We cannot extract, in case of office use without a license. Data security prevents it from manipulation. And this is the reason for its popularity in the corporate world. SAS is a prime tool for many big companies. Being a secured source, the company’s data is confidential here. Only freelancers use R. It is a free and open-source, data security is not guaranteed. SAS is a professional choice for developers over any other language used for analysis.
SAS GUI
SAS is a programming language that has made statistical computing easier for non-programming users. It has an amazing Graphical User Interface (GUI). SAS frameworks and interface has various tools like graphs, plots, and a highly versatile library.
Nice Output
SAS has changed drastically over a long period of time. It has a nice formatted output, one which is easily comprehensible.
Huge Job Prospects
The reason why SAS is being used for a very long time in the industry is the huge job prospects. Developers learn SAS as a prerequisite to enter the analytics industry. One who can master or commands SAS can learn R and Python easily. It is the market leader in the analytics industry.
Conclusion
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