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SAS stands for Statistical Analysis System. It is a statistical and information system that performs sophisticated data management and statistical analysis. SAS is available in multiple computing environments. At the University of North Texas, we have obtained the licenses of the software (version 9.2) for different operating systems including Windows, Mac, and UNIX. Version 9.3 is in the process of being distributed. In this series, we will focus on SAS 9.1.3 for Windows, which is a complete data analysis program with capabilities comparable to, and, in some aspects, surpassing, its counterparts SPSS, S-Plus and Stata. SAS for Windows will do every task that other editions of SAS do, plus it is easy to use and its graphic user interface can do a lot more in graphical analyses than the retired mainframe or older UNIX versions. The only limitation to SAS for Windows is the hardware that it is run on. SAS 9.1.3 for Windows requires a fully patched Windows 2000 or Windows XP operating system with at least a Pentium III processor. SAS 9.1.3 is a large program and will require at least a gigabyte of room on your hard disc; I would not recommend installing and running SAS 9.1.3 on a computer with less than 128MB RAM. As with many Windows applications, the more RAM your machine has, the "better" (faster) the program will run. SAS 9.1 will not work on any versions of Windows prior to Windows 2000. If you cannot upgrade your OS and you need SAS, Research and Statistical Support can provide you with a currently-licensed version of SAS 8.2.

SAS software is distributed through the university's site license agreement with SAS Institute. UNT has a site license that allows students to use the software in any general access labs on campus or to purchase time-sensitive copies through the SAS Institute. These copies expire at the end of the current licensing period in which the software is produced (our SAS licenses typically expire on October 31 of each year with a grace period that will run through January 1st). Full-time faculty and staff can request SAS installation on their desktop machines and laptop machine on campus or at home.  Check the with Patrick McLeod for more details pertaining to the student version of SAS.

UNT students and faculty are also eligible to use SAS on other platforms than Windows.  As of this writing, SAS 9 is available on sol, our Solaris server.  Users who want to use this version need a UNIX/sol account.  Application for these accounts are available to the Computing Center Helpdesk (565-2324).