The Simplest Guide™ to Base SAS & Advanced SAS

Updated in May 2025. This course now features Coursera Coach! A smarter way to learn with interactive, real-time conversations that help you test your knowledge, challenge assumptions, and deepen your understanding as you progress through the course. In this step-by-step SAS programming course, you'll begin by understanding why SAS is an easy-to-learn yet powerful tool for data analysis. We start with a simple introduction to SAS Studio and OnDemand, guiding you through installation, login procedures, and navigating the user interface. The lessons ensure you're comfortable with the SAS environment before diving into the technical aspects of programming. The core of the course takes you through data preparation, manipulation, and structuring techniques using both basic and advanced functions. You'll explore essential concepts like data steps, referencing, and importing data through various methods, followed by detailed lessons on conditional statements, data filtering, and working with dates. With over 50 lessons dedicated to SAS's data management capabilities, the course prepares you for handling large datasets efficiently. In the advanced section, you'll master SAS macros, PROC SQL, and visualizing data through charts, reports, and summary statistics. Finally, hands-on exercises like 'Project Cars' and 'Project Heavyweight' help consolidate your skills, ensuring you're ready to apply SAS in real-world scenarios. This course not only makes SAS programming accessible but also helps you become proficient in handling complex datasets and optimizing your code. This course is designed for data analysts, statisticians, and anyone interested in learning SAS for data management and analysis. No prior knowledge of SAS is required, though basic programming skills can be helpful.