SAS Hash Object Programming Made Easy

Hash objects, an efficient look-up tool in the SAS DATA step, are object-oriented programming structures that function differently from traditional SAS language statements. Michele Burlew's SAS Hash Object Programming Made Easy shows readers how to use these powerful features, which they can program to quickly look up and manage data and to conserve computing resources. SAS provides various look-up techniques, and hash objects are among the newest, so therefore many users may not have yet used them. Because the examples presented vary in complexity, SAS Hash Object Programming Made Easy is useful to SAS users of all experience levels, from novice programmer to advanced programmer. Novice programmers can adapt some of the simpler hash programming techniques as they develop their SAS programming skills. This book helps more experienced programmers learn how to take advantage of hash object programming by comparing traditional processing techniques to those that use hash objects. Additionally, users from diverse fields with different requirements can adapt the examples in SAS Hash Object Programming Made Easy to fit their unique situations. This book is part of the SAS Press program. An overview of hash objects -- Hash object terminology and concepts -- Basic hash object applications -- Creating data sets from hash objects and updating contents of hash objects -- Hash objects with multiple sets of data items per key value -- Managing hash objects