1.5 Overview of This Book

Depending upon your programming background, your knowledge of statistical programming, and your experience with SAS, you might be able to skip certain chapters of this book. The following list summarizes each chapter of the book:

Chapter 2 A basic introduction to the SAS/IML language. The chapter describes how to define matrices, compare quantities, and call functions and subroutines. It describes basic programming statements such as IF-THEN/ELSE and the iterative DO statement. If you are an experienced SAS/IML programmer, you can skip this chapter.

Chapter 3 An introduction to using the SAS/IML language in data analysis. Even experienced SAS/IML programmers should familiarize themselves with the technique presented in the section "Analyzing Observations by Categories" on page 68.

Chapter 4 How to call SAS procedures from a SAS/IML program.

Chapter 5 An overview of features in SAS/IML Studio that are not found in PROC IML.

Chapter 6-Chapter 7 These chapters introduce IMLPlus classes and describe how to create graphs.

Chapter 8 This chapter describes how to manage data in IMLPlus.

Chapter 9-Chapter 10 These chapters describe intermediate-level programming techniques for modifying graphs, including drawing on graphs and changing the color and shape of observation markers.

Chapter 11 How to call R functions and packages from a SAS/IML program.

Chapter 12-Chapter 14 Applications of SAS/IML programming to selected modern statistical topics such as regression diagnostics, simulation and sampling, and bootstrap methods.

Chapter 15 How to measure the time required for an algorithm to run on typical data, and also how to investigate how that time changes with the size or characteristics of the data.

Chapter 16 How to write programs that use interactive features of IMLPlus, such as creating dialog boxes and attaching menus to graphs.