If you log in to your Unix/Linux account, probably on KU's lark system, you can go there, type some stuff, run a job, and quit.

What is Batch Mode?

Batch mode means that one writes up commands, saves them in a file, say called "myBigProject.sas", and then at the prompt types

prompt> sas8 myBigProject.sas

Here the word "sas8" is a command, just like "ls" and "cp" are commands. It tells the sas program to process the myBigProject.sas file. On lark, there are several versions of sas installed. If you just type "sas", you get version 6. "sas8" gets you version 8. Guess what version you get if you type "sas81"? Maybe by the time you read this, you will need a different version of SAS. Use some Unix tools like "find" to check out what SAS they have.

The output will appear in files in the same directory as myBigProject.sas. The "log" of commands and errors will appear in myBigProject.sas.log and the listing of results, if there is any, will be in myBigProject.sas.lst.

Use any text editing program, or "more" or "less" to view the results in these files.

Young people will think I'm an old fashioned codger because I make the .sas suffix appear in the filename and listing and logs. Well, I guess that's the price I have to pay for being comfortable in my old age.

What is good about Batch Mode?

Have I mentioned that I'm recently turned 40?

That means I'm an old crank who only likes things the way they used to be. And batch is the way it used to be.

But seriously, batch is the best because it is 1) cheapest to you 2) fastest 3) less prone to lockups 4) most dependable and predictable, and 5) easiest to teach. If you use SAS in Batch Mode, you never run into the problem that "I can't remember where I pointed and clicked, so I can't get the same thing twice." If you run in batch, all the steps are saved there, in your file.

In batch, I can just give you a file, tell you to edit it, then have sas process it with "sas8 filename" and everything is clear in the log and list.

In the Spring and Fall of 2000, I started using SAS-PC a bit more because it was easier to convert MS Excel Files into SAS format. With the exception of jobs like that, I still think lark is the best. But I can help you use SAS-PC as well.

-- PaulJohnson - 10 Dec 2002