Technology Tales

Adventures in consumer and enterprise technology

SAS Packages: Revolutionising code sharing in the SAS ecosystem

Published on 26th July 2025 Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes

In the world of statistical programming, SAS has long been the backbone of data analysis for countless organisations worldwide. Yet, for decades, one of the most significant challenges facing SAS practitioners has been the efficient sharing and reuse of code. Knowledge and expertise have often remained siloed within individual developers or teams, creating inefficiencies and missed opportunities for collaboration. Enter the SAS Packages Framework (SPF), a solution that changes how SAS professionals share, distribute and utilise code across their organisations and the broader community.

The Problem: Fragmented Knowledge and Complex Dependencies

Anyone who has worked extensively with SAS knows the frustration of trying to share complex macros or functions with colleagues. Traditional code sharing in SAS has been plagued by several issues:

  • Dependency nightmares: A single macro often relies on dozens of utility macros working behind the scenes, making it nearly impossible to share everything needed for the code to function properly
  • Version control chaos: Keeping track of which version of which macro works with which other components becomes an administrative burden
  • Platform compatibility issues: Code that works on Windows might fail on Linux systems and vice versa
  • Lack of documentation: Without proper documentation and help systems, even the most elegant code becomes unusable to others
  • Knowledge concentration: Valuable SAS expertise remains trapped within individuals rather than being shared with the broader community

These challenges have historically meant that SAS developers spend countless hours reinventing the wheel, recreating functionality that already exists elsewhere in their organisation or the wider SAS community.

The Solution: SAS Packages Framework

The SAS Packages Framework, developed by Bartosz Jabłoński, represents a paradigm shift in how SAS code is organised, shared and deployed. At its core, a SAS package is an automatically generated, single, standalone zip file containing organised and ordered code structures, extended with additional metadata and utility files. This solution addresses the fundamental challenges of SAS code sharing by providing:

  • Functionality over complexity: Instead of worrying about 73 utility macros working in the background, you simply share one file and tell your colleagues about the main functionality they need to use.
  • Complete self-containment: Everything needed for the code to function is bundled into one file, eliminating the "did I remember to include everything?" problem that has plagued SAS developers for years.
  • Automatic dependency management: The framework handles the loading order of code components and automatically updates system options like cmplib= and fmtsearch= for functions and formats.
  • Cross-platform compatibility: Packages work seamlessly across different operating systems, from Windows to Linux and UNIX environments.

Beyond Macros: A Spectrum of SAS Functionality

One of the most compelling aspects of the SAS Packages Framework is its versatility. While many code-sharing solutions focus solely on macros, SAS packages support a wide range of SAS functionality:

  • User-defined functions (both FCMP and CASL)
  • IML modules for matrix programming
  • PROC PROTO C routines for high-performance computing
  • Custom formats and informats
  • Libraries and datasets
  • PROC DS2 threads and packages
  • Data generation code
  • Additional content such as documentation PDF's

This comprehensive approach means that virtually any SAS functionality can be packaged and shared, making the framework suitable for everything from simple utility macros to complex analytical frameworks.

Real-World Applications: From Pharmaceutical Research to General Analytics

The adoption of SAS packages has been particularly notable in the pharmaceutical industry, where code quality, validation and sharing are critical concerns. The PharmaForest initiative, led by PHUSE Japan's Open-Source Technology Working Group, exemplifies how the framework is being used to revolutionise pharmaceutical SAS programming. PharmaForest offers a collaborative repository of SAS packages specifically designed for pharmaceutical applications, including:

  • OncoPlotter: A comprehensive package for creating figures commonly used in oncology studies
  • SAS FAKER: Tools for generating realistic test data while maintaining privacy
  • SASLogChecker: Automated log review and validation tools
  • rtfCreator: Streamlined RTF output generation

The initiative's philosophy perfectly captures the spirit of the SAS Packages Framework: "Through SAS packages, we want to actively encourage sharing of SAS know-how that has often stayed within individuals. By doing this, we aim to build up collective knowledge, boost productivity, ensure quality through standardisation and energise our community".

The SASPAC Archive: A Growing Ecosystem

The establishment of SASPAC (SAS Packages Archive) represents the maturation of the SAS packages ecosystem. This dedicated repository serves as the official home for SAS packages, with each package maintained as a separate repository complete with version history and documentation. Some notable packages available through SASPAC include:

  • BasePlus: Extends BASE SAS with functionality that many developers find themselves wishing was built into SAS itself. With 12 stars on GitHub, it's become one of the most popular packages in the archive.
  • MacroArray: Provides macro array functionality that simplifies complex macro programming tasks, addressing a long-standing gap in SAS's macro language capabilities.
  • SQLinDS: Enables SQL queries within data steps, bridging the gap between SAS's powerful data step processing and SQL's intuitive query syntax.
  • DFA (Dynamic Function Arrays): Offers advanced data structures that extend SAS's analytical capabilities.
  • GSM (Generate Secure Macros): Provides tools for protecting proprietary code while still enabling sharing and collaboration.

Getting Started: Surprisingly Simple

Despite the capabilities, getting started with SAS packages is fairly straightforward. The framework can be deployed in multiple ways, depending on your needs. For a quick test or one-time use, you can enable the framework directly from the web:

filename packages "%sysfunc(pathname(work))";
filename SPFinit url "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/yabwon/SAS_PACKAGES/main/SPF/SPFinit.sas";
%include SPFinit;

For permanent installation, you simply create a directory for your packages and install the framework:

filename packages "C:SAS_PACKAGES";
%installPackage(SPFinit)

Once installed, using packages becomes as simple as:

%installPackage(packageName)
%helpPackage(packageName)
%loadPackage(packageName)

Developer Benefits: Quality and Efficiency

For SAS developers, the framework offers numerous advantages that go beyond simple code sharing:

  • Enforced organisation: The package development process naturally encourages better code organisation and documentation practices.
  • Built-in testing: The framework includes testing capabilities that help ensure code quality and reliability.
  • Version management: Packages include metadata such as version numbers and generation timestamps, supporting modern DevOps practices.
  • Integrity verification: The framework provides tools to verify package authenticity and integrity, addressing security concerns in enterprise environments.
  • Cherry-picking: Users can load only specific components from a package, reducing memory usage and namespace pollution.

The Future of SAS Code Sharing

The growing adoption of SAS packages represents more than just a new tool, it signals a fundamental shift towards a more collaborative and efficient SAS ecosystem. The framework's MIT licensing and 100% open-source nature ensure that it remains accessible to all SAS users, from individual practitioners to large enterprise installations. This democratisation of advanced code-sharing capabilities levels the playing field and enables even small teams to benefit from enterprise-grade development practices.

As the ecosystem continues to grow, with contributions from pharmaceutical companies, academic institutions and individual developers worldwide, the SAS Packages Framework is proving that the future of SAS programming lies not in isolated development, but in collaborative, community-driven innovation.

For SAS practitioners looking to modernise their development practices, improve code quality and tap into the collective knowledge of the global SAS community, exploring SAS packages isn't just an option, it's becoming an essential step towards more efficient and effective statistical programming.

Keywords

Just click on one of these terms to find more like this:

  • The content, images, and materials on this website are protected by copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, or published in any form without the prior written permission of the copyright holder. All trademarks, logos, and brand names mentioned on this website are the property of their respective owners. Unauthorised use or duplication of these materials may violate copyright, trademark and other applicable laws, and could result in criminal or civil penalties.

  • All comments on this website are moderated and should contribute meaningfully to the discussion. We welcome diverse viewpoints expressed respectfully, but reserve the right to remove any comments containing hate speech, profanity, personal attacks, spam, promotional content or other inappropriate material without notice. Please note that comment moderation may take up to 24 hours, and that repeatedly violating these guidelines may result in being banned from future participation.

  • By submitting a comment, you grant us the right to publish and edit it as needed, whilst retaining your ownership of the content. Your email address will never be published or shared, though it is required for moderation purposes.

Copyright © 2007-2025, TechnologyTales.com