Free Beer

Ok, so maybe the title got you a bit excited but how do you feel about free SODA as in SAS OnDemand for Academics? SAS OnDemand for Academics is a free cloud based version of SAS that uses SAS Studio in your web browser as an editor. This means that there is no software to download and install and that with your credentials you can use SAS anywhere you have an internet connection.

To get started you just need to create a SAS profile for a free account with SAS on this page. If you already have a profile you can use your email address and password to logon. Otherwise, click on the Don't have a SAS Profile link shown in the below image. You will need to verify that your email is valid by acknowledging a verfication email.

After you have logged in, you will see a screen similar to the image below. Notice in the lower right that there is a progress bar used to display how much of your 5GB of free disk space you have used. To get started, click on the SAS Studio link circled in red below.

Once you start SAS Studio, you will see an image similar to that shown below. There is way too much to cover with a blank editor so suggest users look at the SAS Studio documentation for more information.

One quick example is to right click on Files (Home) under Server Files and Folders and create a new folder (I called mine data). Next click on that new folder then on the Upload icon (or right mouse click, Upload Files...). Now that your file is in the cloud, right mouse click and select Import Data. Follow the wizard and if that was an Excel file the data just got loaded into a SAS data set in the cloud. From there do whatever analysis you desire usign the familiar SAS syntax.

The important thing to keep in mind is that all your code and data will live in the cloud there is nothing on your own computer. Hope you enjoyed this post and drink up!