Book excerpt: This book introduces advanced techniques for using PROC SQL in SAS. If you are a SAS programmer, analyst, or student who has mastered the basics of working with SQL, Advanced SQL with SAS® will help take your skills to the next level. Filled with practical examples with detailed explanations, this book demonstrates how to improve performance and speed for large data sets. Although the book addresses advanced topics, it is designed to progress from the simple and manageable to the complex and sophisticated. In addition to numerous tuning techniques, this book also touches on implicit and explicit pass-throughs, presents alternative SAS grid- and cloud-based processing environments, and compares SAS programming languages and approaches including FedSQL, CAS, DS2, and hash programming. Other topics include: Missing values and data quality with audit trails “Blind spots” like how missing values can affect even the simplest calculations and table joins SAS macro language and SAS macro programs SAS functions Integrity constraints SAS Dictionaries SAS Compute Server