Initially SAS was developed as "Statistical Analysis System", as a project to analyze agricultural research,Which exclusively serves the purpose to fulfill the analysis and statistical needs of a subject. As demand for SAS grows, it has evolved into the other areas of interest like BI, Analytics, Application Development etc and hence the name "Statistical Analysis Systems" is completely eroded now a days, and it is just referred as SAS.
SAS is a very vast subject, almost no one can ever be perfect in all the areas. The most important modules of SAS includes BASE SAS (includes data step, procedures like report, tabulate etc), ADVANCED SAS ( SQL, STAT etc), ANALYTICS, BI and DI studio. It is advisable to have a knowledge in these areas and expertise in one of them.
Coming to the competitors, R software is very close to SAS as it has an advantage of freeware. SPSS and STATISTICA are also in the list. It would be an added advantage to have a knowledge on one of these softwares in addition to SAS.
The best way to learn SAS is to practice. Few of the sources that you can refer are:
SUGI Papers
SASCommunity
SAS Documentation
and last but not the least Google
SAS is a very vast subject, almost no one can ever be perfect in all the areas. The most important modules of SAS includes BASE SAS (includes data step, procedures like report, tabulate etc), ADVANCED SAS ( SQL, STAT etc), ANALYTICS, BI and DI studio. It is advisable to have a knowledge in these areas and expertise in one of them.
Coming to the competitors, R software is very close to SAS as it has an advantage of freeware. SPSS and STATISTICA are also in the list. It would be an added advantage to have a knowledge on one of these softwares in addition to SAS.
The best way to learn SAS is to practice. Few of the sources that you can refer are:
SUGI Papers
SASCommunity
SAS Documentation
and last but not the least Google
