Book excerpt: Leverage the full potential of SAS to get unique, actionable insights from your data Key FeaturesBuild enterprise-class data solutions using SAS and become well-versed in SAS programmingWork with different data structures, and run SQL queries to manipulate your dataExplore essential concepts and techniques with practical examples to confidently pass the SAS certification examBook Description SAS is one of the leading enterprise tools in the world today when it comes to data management and analysis. It enables the fast and easy processing of data and helps you gain valuable business insights for effective decision-making. This book will serve as a comprehensive guide that will prepare you for the SAS certification exam. After a quick overview of the SAS architecture and components, the book will take you through the different approaches to importing and reading data from different sources using SAS. You will then cover SAS Base and 4GL, understanding data management and analysis, along with exploring SAS functions for data manipulation and transformation. Next, you'll discover SQL procedures and get up to speed on creating and validating queries. In the concluding chapters, you'll learn all about data visualization, right from creating bar charts and sample geographic maps through to assigning patterns and formats. In addition to this, the book will focus on macro programming and its advanced aspects. By the end of this book, you will be well versed in SAS programming and have the skills you need to easily handle and manage your data-related problems in SAS. What you will learnExplore a variety of SAS modules and packages for efficient data analysisUse SAS 4GL functions to manipulate, merge, sort, and transform dataGain useful insights into advanced PROC SQL options in SAS to interact with dataGet to grips with SAS Macro and define your own macros to share dataDiscover the different graphical libraries to shape and visualize data withApply the SAS Output Delivery System to prepare detailed reportsWho this book is for Budding or experienced data professionals who want to get started with SAS will benefit from this book. Those looking to prepare for the SAS certification exam will also find this book to be a useful resource. Some understanding of basic data management concepts will help you get the most out of this book.