In SAS, data is extracted & categorized which helps you to identify and analyze data patterns. It is a software suite which allows you to perform advanced analysis, Business Intelligence, Predictive Analysis, data management to operate effectively in the competitive & changing business conditions.

Compared to other business intelligence tools, SAS provides extensive support to programmatically transform and analyze data, apart from using the drag and drop interface. This provides very granular control over data manipulation and analyzes which is its USP.

Key features of SAS are:
- Easily access raw data files & data in from an external database. Read and write almost any data format!
- Manage data using tools for data entry, editing retrieval, formatting & conversion
- Analyze data using descriptive, statistics, multivariate techniques, forecasting, modeling, linear programming
- Advanced analytics helps you to make changes and improvements in business practices.
- Report formation with perfect graphs
- Operations research and project Management
- Data updating and modification
- Powerful data handling language
- Excellent data cleansing functions
- Interact with multiple host systems

The SAS software suite has more than 200 components. Following is a list of the more popular ones.
- Base SAS - Basic procedures and data management
- SAS/STAT - Statistical analysis
- SAS/GRAPH - Graphics and presentation
- SAS/OR - Operations research
- SAS/ETS - Econometrics and Time Series Analysis
- SAS/IML - Interactive matrix language
- SAS/AF - Applications facility
- SAS/QC - Quality control
- SAS/INSIGHT - Data mining
- SAS/PH - Clinical trial analysis
- Enterprise Miner - data mining
- Enterprise Guide - GUI based code editor & project manager
- SAS EBI - Suite of Business Intelligence Applications
- SAS Grid Manager - Manager of SAS grid computing environment

SAS programs have DATA steps, which retrieve and manipulate data, and PROC steps, which analyze the data. Each step consists of a series of statements.

The DATA step has executable statements that result in the software taking an action, and declarative statements that provide instructions to read a data set or alter the data's appearance. The DATA step has two phases: compilation and execution. In the compilation phase, declarative statements are processed and syntax errors are identified. Afterwards, the execution phase processes each executable statement sequentially. Data sets are organized into tables with rows called "observations" and columns called "variables". Additionally, each piece of data has a descriptor and a value.

The PROC step consists of PROC statements that call upon named procedures. Procedures perform analysis and reporting on data sets to produce statistics, analyses, and graphics. There are more than 300 named procedures and each one contains a substantial body of programming and statistical work. PROC statements can also display results, sort data or perform other operations.

SAS macros are pieces of code or variables that are coded once and referenced to perform repetitive tasks.

SAS data can be published in HTML, PDF, Excel, RTF and other formats using the Output Delivery System. The SAS Enterprise Guide is SAS's point-and-click interface. It generates code to manipulate data or perform analysis automatically and does not require SAS programming experience to use.

What's new in SAS 9.4M7
Some of the key elements and enhancements in 9.4M7 are in the following areas:
- Security Enhancements
- Operating System Support
- Upgrade in Place
- Flash Removal
- Hot Fix, Bug Fix, and product/solution enhancements

Security Integrity of SAS 9.4 is essential. In 9.4M7 SAS delivers updates to address vulnerabilities in our software and the third party and open source software we package. Security training is part of our culture and security testing is part of our process. Our customers IT and Audit teams are charged with keeping their software environments secure and "up-to-date" in order to minimize potential security vulnerabilities. To address and maintain these secure environments, SAS has implemented several measures including support for Windows Defender Credential Guard and Constrained Delegation, version updates to the SAS Web Server, SAS Web App Server, Postgres, etc., and version updates to the Java 8 SAS Private JRE and many third part Java components.

The longevity of the SAS 9.4 Platform release requires that we release support for new Operating Systems, Operating System features like SELinux and Browsers like Microsoft Edge on Chromium in maintenance releases. In 9.4M7 SAS is not dropping support for operating environments no longer supported by their vendors.

SAS 9.4M7 delivers the culmination of a SAS-wide initiative to identify, analyze, and correct the root causes of reported issues with the SAS Upgrade in Place process. SAS 9.4M7 is the first SAS release without Adobe Flash dependencies and the assumption is that 9.4M7 will be the target release for many customers previously using SAS products dependent on Flash. Additionally, there are new tools and documentation, deployment process enhancements, and Web App Server enhancements to improve the upgrade in place process.

SAS 9.4M7 brings with it the completion of a multi-year effort to remove Adobe Flash dependencies from over 70 SAS products and solutions. SAS products and solutions with Flash dependencies have been replaced with SAS Viya offerings, replaced with CI360 offerings, or updated with HTML 5 User Interfaces. A few SAS products are no longer available, and their functionality has been replaced with other products and solutions.

Since the November 2018 release of SAS 9.4M6, there have been approximately 125 hot fixes released and incorporated. Additionally, approximately 200 reported platform bugs and enhancement requests have been addressed. On the product enhancement front, hot fixes and bug fixes have been applied to approximately 70 offerings. This includes products in the following areas: Analytics, Data Management and SAS/ACCESS offerings, Visualization, Decision Management, and Risk.