One of the many SAS PROCs that is very useful to know in the IRI/Data Analytics is merging.  Often a higher education institution, i.e., an IR Data Analyst or Associate needs to merge data from different sources to complete a report.  For example, an administrator at College AAA has the interest to know the college choice of its transferred-out students.  Knowing this information will help the decision makers at College AAA to make strategic decisions.  This is particularly important for colleges that are competing for the state money under “Performance Based Funding” system.  Readers will learn more how to complete the tasks by reading the SAS merging concepts and codes here.  This paper has summarized different concepts of merging that can be done in SAS.

Note: This is the first article in Data Analtytics 101 Series.  The Association will start publishing skills, techniques, references and codes to help the IRI/Data Analytics profession to grow.