Suggestions for Learning how to Use SAS

• Read SAS documentation, especially the "Usage" guides associated with products of interest, see items under the SAS Help menu and information contained in References.

• Study programs written by others (see Sample SAS Programs).

• Experiment with new procedures and options. Add one new thing at a time and avoid the impulse to carry out everything at once.

• Test your programs with a small data set. This is especially true when doing something you have not tried before. Check not only that the program runs without error, but also that the results are what you expect.

• When possible, use a series of short, single objective programs instead of one master program to do everything. Although this does not appear as efficient as a single program, this approach allows you to check each intermediate result. Thus you can be sure that step has been completed successfully before proceeding to the next step.

• Use common sense; be patient with yourself and the computer.