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# Introduction to **sassy**
<img src="./man/images/logo_blue.png" align="left" height="138" 
style="margin-right: 20px;margin-bottom: 30px;height: 138px" alt="SASSY logo"/>

For SAS® programmers, encountering R for the first time can be quite a shock.

* Where is the log?
* Where are my datasets?
* How do I do a data step?
* How do I create a format?
* How do I create a report?

All these basic concepts that were so familiar and easy for you are suddenly 
gone.  How can R possibly be a replacement for SAS®, when it can't even
create a decent log!

If you are in this state of shock, or have asked yourself any of the 
above questions, then the **sassy** system is for you!

The **sassy** system was designed to make data preparation and reporting in R 
easier for everyone, but especially for SAS® programmers.
The system brings many useful SAS® concepts to R.  With the **sassy**
system you can:

* Create a libname
* Create a format catalog
* Do a data step
* Generate frequency and summary statistics
* Write a report in a few lines of code
* And more!

And all of the above activities can be recorded in a traceable log!  

The **sassy** system totally changes the flow of the typical R script. 
It greatly simplifies the script, significantly reduces the number of lines of code, 
and generally makes the flow more similar to a SAS® program. 

### Installation

The **sassy** meta-package is published on CRAN.  You can install it
with the following console command:

    install.packages("sassy")


Then put the following line at the top of your script:

    library(sassy)


The above commands will install and load a set of packages that will allow you
to think about programming in R very much the same way you thought about
programming in SAS®.  

It is not *identical* to SAS®.  R is, after all, 
a very different language.  R is functional, vector-based, and runs
entirely in memory.  As a result, the syntax of **sassy** functions will be 
different than their corresponding SAS® functions.  

The **sassy** functions 
will, however, have a similar feel.  Overall, you will find 
programming with the **sassy** system much more comfortable than programming
in **Base R** or **tidyverse** alone.

### Introductory Videos

Here is a video discussing stability of the packages that comprise the 
**sassy** system:

[![Sassy System Stability](https://img.youtube.com/vi/JK6JNf-FjGY/0.jpg)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JK6JNf-FjGY)


### Next Steps

Next, you should read the [Get started](https://sassy.r-sassy.org/articles/sassy.html)
page, and look at some examples.  From these pages, you will be able to 
link into each of the packages included in the **sassy** system, and explore them
in depth.  

Have fun!

### Getting Help

If you need help with the **sassy** family of packages, the best place 
to turn to is the [r-sassy](https://sassy.r-sassy.org) web site.  
This web site offers many examples, and full
documentation on every function.  

If you would like to read some more about the **sassy** packages before committing
to anything, you can find a list of papers [here](https://sassy.r-sassy.org/articles/sassy-training.html).

If you want training on the **sassy** system, there is a video course on YouTube.
You can find links to the training videos [here](https://sassy.r-sassy.org/articles/sassy-training.html).

If you want to look at the code for the **sassy** package, visit the
github page [here](https://github.com/dbosak01/sassy).

If you encounter a bug or have a feature request, please submit an issue 
[here](https://github.com/dbosak01/sassy/issues).







