Thursday 2 January 2014

My 2013 Top Ten

Last week I published the ten blog articles that scored most hits over the last 18 months. That was "your" top ten. I thought I'd offer an alternative top ten by listing the articles that I most enjoyed writing or which I personally thought were of the greatest significance. Pure indulgence; please forgive me!

In no particular order...
  • NOTE: Ampersands Again, 31-Jan-2013. I love SAS macros and I was very happy to write a couple of articles at the beginning of the year about the use of multiple ampersands to achieve indirect references to macro variables
  • NOTE: High-Availability Metadata, 8-May-2013. V9.4's (optional) introduction of multiple metadata servers was a big step forward for SAS resilience
  • Predictive Analytics in the 17th Century, 14-May-2013. I was glad to be able to bring John Gaunt's fascinating work to a wider audience
  • NOTE: The OPEN Function (reading data sets in macros), 9-Jan-2013. SAS/AF's SCL language remains a favourite of mine. Using some of the SCL functions in DATA step and macro brings back happy memories! They're useful too. This individual article was part of a short-series I wrote about the OPEN function
  • Test Cases, an Investment, 11-Dec-2013. A very recent article, but covering something that doesn't get enough coverage, i.e. re-use of tests for regression testing
  • NOTE: Enterprise Guide vs DI Studio - What's the Difference?, 4-Dec-2013. One of my favourite interview questions!
  • NOTE: More Agility at SAS, 18-Nov-2013. SAS are a successful software company, so there's always lots to learn by understanding how software development is done at SAS
  • NOTE: Interactive Metadata-Bound Libraries (MBLs), 14-Nov-2013. I think that metadata-bound libraries are one of the most significant developments in SAS for quite some time. To see a nice interactive interface as option is just icing on the cake
  • Beware the Data Shadow, 24-Apr-2013. Be sure that your sources of data are of good quality and coming from reliable sources
  • Animated Graphics, Courtesy of V9.4 SAS/GRAPH, 11-Jun-2013. Hans Rosling's animated statistical presentation on health and income growth across the decades is legendary. In this post I provided a pointer to Rob Allison's treatise on how to do the same (almost) in SAS
Let's hope for a peaceful and prosperous New Year for us all!