STAT 362: Introduction to Computer Statistical Packages

Fall, 2002

Instructor: James Gentle

If you send email to the instructor, please put "Stat 362" in the subject line.

Although the general schedule of the course will remain essentially as shown below, this web page will evolve as the semester progresses. In particular, links to solutions to assignments and quizzes will be posted at appropriate times (after the fact, of course!).

The general description of the course is available at www.science.gmu.edu/~jgentle/stat362/

• Week 1, Aug 27, 29
  Computer systems and organization; applications software.
  Data organization for statistical analysis.
  Introduction to the SAS software system (reference: The Little SAS Book , Chapter 1 and Section 8.3).
  The SAS DATA step and simple PROCs (PRINT, FREQ, CORR, and CHART, reference: The Little SAS Book , Sections 4.4, 4.11, and 7.4).
  Review of basic statistics.
  Assignment 1 (due following Tuesday)
  

  ---

• Week 2, Sep 3, 5
  Review of basic statistics: descriptive statistics and statistical inference; estimation and hypothesis testing; etc.
  The SAS DATA step and more PROCs (reference: The Little SAS Book , Chapter 2 and Section 4.9).
  Missing values, input from ASCII data file,
  Conditional execution (reference: The Little SAS Book , Sections 3.4 and 3.5).
  Assignment 2 (due following Tuesday)
  Solution
  

  ---

• Week 3, Sep 10, 12
  More on the DATA step (reference: The Little SAS Book , Section 2.9).
  Saving and reusing SAS datasets.
  Additional statements in the SAS DATA step:
  Functions, OUTPUT/DELETE, DROP/KEEP, RENAME, LABEL
  Assignment 3 (due following Tuesday)
  Solution
  

  ---

• Week 4, Sep 17, 19
  Combining and manipulating SAS datasets (reference: The Little SAS Book , Chapter 5).
  Sorting, concatenation, interleaving, merging, updating.
  Thursday, September 19, Quiz 1.
  Assignment 4 (due following Tuesday)
  Solution
  

  ---

• Week 5, Sep 24, 26
  Review of Quiz 1
  Still more on the DATA step (reference: The Little SAS Book , Chapters 2, 3, and 4).
  Lagged variables; automatic variables; arrays; DO loops; and labels.
  More on the INPUT statement and controlling output.
  Character data; PUT and FILE statements;
  PROC FORMAT; custom formats; recoding.
  Assignment 5 (due following Tuesday)
  Solution
  

  ---

• Week 6, Oct 1, 3
  Regression analysis; basic model fitting.
  Regression in SAS (reference: The Little SAS Book , Sections 7.5 and 7.6).
  PROC REG statement, MODEL statement, P option.
  Output, BY statement.
  PLOT statement, P. keyword, OVERLAY option.
  Assignment 6 (due following Tuesday)
  Solution
  

  ---

• Week 7, Oct 8, 10
  More on regression analysis:
  Inspection of residuals -- patterns; polynomial regression;
  Confidence intervals; prediction intervals.
  Assignment 7 (due following Thursday)
  Solution
  

  ---

• Week 8, Oct 17 (no class Oct 15)
  Regression fitting; the AOV table associated with a regression analysis;
  More on regression model building
  Adequacy of fit: R-squared, adjusted R-squared
  Selection of variables in regression.
  Assignment 8 (due following Thursday)
  Solution
  

  ---

• Week 9, Oct 22, 24
  Review (combining datasets, regression, etc.).
  Thursday, October 24, Quiz 2.
  Assignment 9 (due following Tuesday)
  Solution
  

  ---

• Week 10, Oct 29, 31
  Review of Quiz 2
  More on SAS Datasets
  Informats/Formats
  Date data (reference: The Little SAS Book , Sections 3.7, 3.8).
  SQL (reference: The Little SAS Book , and Appendix F).
  Importing and exporting SAS datasets (reference: The Little SAS Book , Sections 2.6, 2.12, and 2.15--2.19).
  Assignment 10 (due following Tuesday)
  Solution
  

  ---

• Week 11, Nov 5, 7
  Simple graphics in SAS
  Assignment 11 (due following Tuesday)
  Solution
  

  ---

• Week 12, Nov 12, 14
  SAS macros (reference: The Little SAS Book , Chapter 6).
  Assignment 12 (due following Tuesday, but may be turned in on Wednesday, Nov 20.)
  Solution
  

  ---

• Week 13, Nov 19, 21
  Statistical graphics.
  SAS/GRAPH.
  Thursday, November 21, Quiz 3.
  Assignment 13 (due following Tuesday)
  Solution
  

  ---

• Week 14, Nov 26
  More on SAS/GRAPH.
  Assignment 14 (due following Tuesday)
  Solution
  
  

  ---

• Week 15, Dec 3, 5
  SAS as a flexible programming language.
  PROC IML.
  More on SAS macros.
  University closed Dec 5; class canceled.
  Assignment 15 (not to turn in)
  Solution