Starting with a new software and programming language is not easy. This tips and tricks helps you to understand the basics in SAS and how to access your data , sample data and help files in order to start in the good direction.

This tips and tricks is designed for non IT persons who would like to start with the SAS programming language. We will talk about the SAS programming language and the SAS environments in order to demystify it:

• How can we access SAS?
• What is a SAS program and how can we execute it?
• What is the naming convention of the language?
• What is a SAS dataset?
• How can we access data in SAS?
• Use proc import/export
• What is a SAS format, where can I find the list of default SAS formats ?
• What is a SAS label, how can I use it in a procedure ?
• Introduction to the macro language in order to simplify the code.

You don't have any SAS experience and would like to understand the basic terminology of the SAS programming language and how to access data.