The features provided by SAS/ETS software are extensions to the features provided by Base SAS software. Many data management and reporting capabilities you need are part of Base SAS software. Refer to SAS Language Reference: Dictionary and Base SAS Procedures Guide for documentation of Base SAS software. In particular, refer to Base SAS Procedures Guide: Statistical Procedures for information about statistical analysis features included with Base SAS.
The following sections summarize Base SAS software features of interest to users of SAS/ETS software. See Chapter 3: Working with Time Series Data, for further discussion of some of these topics as they relate to time series data and SAS/ETS software.
The DATA step is your primary tool for reading and processing data in the SAS System. The DATA step provides a powerful general purpose programming language that enables you to perform all kinds of data processing tasks. The DATA step is documented in SAS Language Reference: Dictionary.
Base SAS software includes many useful SAS procedures, which are documented in Base SAS Procedures Guide and Base SAS Procedures Guide: Statistical Procedures. The following is a list of Base SAS procedures you might find useful:
for compiling functions for use in SAS programs. The SAS Function Compiler Procedure (FCMP) enables you to create, test, and store SAS functions and subroutines before you use them in other SAS procedures. PROC FCMP accepts slight variations of DATA step statements, and most features of the SAS program
ing language can be used in functions and subroutines that are processed by PROC FCMP.
for computing descriptive statistics and summarizing or collapsing data over cross sections
for accessing external functions from the SAS system. The PROTO procedure enables you to register external functions that are written in the C or C++ programming languages. You can use these functions in SAS as well as in C-language structures and types. After the C-language functions are registered in PROC
PROTO, they can be called from any SAS function or subroutine that is declared in the FCMP procedure, as well as from any SAS function, subroutine, or method block that is declared in the COMPILE procedure.
Global statements can be specified anywhere in your SAS program, and they remain in effect until changed. Global statements are documented in SAS Language Reference: Dictionary. You may find the following SAS global statements useful:
for accessing data files
for printing footnote lines at the bottom of each page
for including files of SAS statements
for accessing SAS data libraries
for setting various SAS system options
for ending an interactive procedure step
for executing the preceding SAS statements
for printing title lines at the top of each page
for issuing host operating system commands from within your SAS session
Some Base SAS statements can be used with any SAS procedure, including SAS/ETS procedures. These statements are not global, and they affect only the SAS procedure they are used with. These statements are documented in SAS Language Reference: Dictionary.
The following Base SAS statements are useful with SAS/ETS procedures:
SAS functions can be used in DATA step programs and in the COMPUTAB and MODEL procedures. The following kinds of functions are available:
date and time functions for performing date and calendar calculations
financial functions for performing financial calculations such as depreciation, net present value, periodic savings, and internal rate of return
lagging and differencing functions for computing lags and differences
mathematical functions for computing data transformations and other mathematical calculations
probability functions for computing quantiles of statistical distributions and the significance of test statistics
sample statistics functions for computing means, standard deviations, kurtosis, and so forth
SAS functions are documented in SAS Language Reference: Dictionary. Chapter 3: Working with Time Series Data, discusses the use of date, time, lagging, and differencing functions. Chapter 4: Date Intervals, Formats, and Functions, contains a reference list of date and time functions.
Base SAS software provides formats to control the printing of data values, informats to read data values, and time intervals to define the frequency of time series. See Chapter 4: Date Intervals, Formats, and Functions, for more information.