Application Development: Building SCL Applications in SAS® Software

Duration: 3.0 days CEUs: 1.8

Audience
This course is designed for students who need to develop applications in SAS for others to use who do not know SAS, but need the analysis, reporting and graphing offered in SAS. Screen Control Language is introduced and discussed in this course. Students will learn to design advanced, interactive menu driven systems using SAS/AF and SAS/FSP software. We cover an extensive discussion of SCL as it is used to interact with the user, submit batch SAS programs, perform lookups, use extended tables, create screens, choice groups, push buttons, selection lists and customized pull down menus. Innovative SCL examples the students can take with them are used in class discussions. This course is designed primarily for character-based environments. For graphical environments, consider the Build Frame Entry Applications course.

This instructor-based course is for experienced SAS programmers who want to learn how to develop interactive, menu-based applications with SAS/AF and SAS/FSP software. This course is most appropriate for mainframe and non-graphical environments.

Benefits
While following a task-oriented case study, this three-day course teaches you components of Screen Control Language (SCL), a powerful programming language that allows complete control of interactive applications. Application components are shown that enable the user to do data entry and editing in windows, produce reports, and perform other common data processing tasks. The emphasis is on developing applications that utilize a point-and-click interface. After completing this course, you should be able to:

• Ask users for input and provide messages and help when appropriate
• Incorporate user input into the application
• Submit SAS code based on user input
• Design and implement custom data entry systems in a windowing environment
• Implement a variety of validation strategies using SCL
• Control branching among windows
• Design and implement a variety of applications environments, including command menus, pull-down menus, icons, and push buttons.

Prerequisites
Before selecting this course, you should complete the SAS Fundamentals: A Programming Approach course or the Fundamentals of the SAS System course, and the SAS Programming course. You should also have experience with interactive programming under the SAS Display Manager System. Specifically, you should know how to:

• Use windows such as the PROGRAM EDITOR, LOG, LIBNAME, DIR, VAR, CATALOG, FSVIEW, and FSEDIT, and use the SAS Help Facility
• Issue basic commands for window management
• Issue commands from pull-down menus, a command line, or function keys
• Reference a SAS data library with the LIBNAME statement
• Write and debug SAS programs consisting of DATA and PROC steps
• Use a WHERE statement or command to subset observations
• Write DATA step programs that use functions, formats, informats, SAS date values, and conditional logic (IF-THEN/ELSE, or SELECT) statements.

Course Topics

Introduction
• Understanding the structure of Screen Control Language as an application development tool
• Understanding the role of SAS/AF software in creating user-friendly applications
• Understanding SAS data libraries

Building SAS/AF Entries
• Understanding SAS/AF entries in catalogs
• Creating catalogs and catalog entries using the BUILD procedure
• Providing a general overview of using an application by creating a HELP entry
• Understanding the structure of PROGRAM entries

Screen Control Language Program Flow
• Writing an SCL program
• Testing and debugging an SCL program
• Using SCL for field validation

Custom FSEDIT Displays
• Creating custom FSEDIT displays
• Assigning FSEDIT field attributes
• Modifying general parameters for a custom display
• Using SCL programming in FSEDIT applications
• Accessing SAS data sets with SCL

Accessing SAS Data Sets Using SCL
• Displaying observations from a SAS data set
• Retrieving values from a SAS data set
• Using WHERE and FETCH functions

User Interface Styles
• Providing a variety of interface styles for the end user
• Developing a point-and-click style user interface
• Creating custom pull-down menus

Submitting SAS Code in SCL Programs
• Placing and testing submit blocks
• Accessing windows with commands and with SCL
• Using application-specific windows
• Implementing point-and-click interaction

Menus and Branching
• Branching with MENU entries
• Providing menus allowing field entry
• Branching from PROGRAM entries
• Passing information between windows

Managing and Implementing an Application
• Deleting, copying, and renaming catalogs and catalog entries
• Printing entries in a catalog with the build procedure
• Writing command system files to facilitate the implementation of an application

Software Used: This course covers Releases 6.07 and later of base SAS, SAS/AF, and SAS/FSP software.