Creating Events for a SAS Visual Forecasting Project

You can create your own custom eventsan incident that disrupts the normal flow of any process that generates the time series. Examples of events are holidays, retail promotions, and natural disasters. in a project from the Data tab in SAS Model Studio.

  1. In the left pane under Events, select Custom events.

    The middle pane shows a list of custom events that are already defined. If no custom events have been created, the pane is empty with the message No events are available.

  2. Click New event menu icon in the top toolbar of the middle pane.

    The New Event window appears.

  3. Use the following fields to define the new event.
    Name

    Provide a unique name for the new event. It must be a valid SAS name as described in Rules for Most SAS Names. After the event is saved, the name cannot be changed.

    CAUTION

    Certain names are reserved and cannot be used for events. The event name cannot match the dependent variable name or any of the following reserved names.

    y
_linear_
_quadratic_
_cubic_
_inverse_
_seasonal_
    Label

    Provide a description of the event. This field is optional.

    Type

    Specify one of the following event types. Point is the default.

    Event Type

    Shape of the Event

    Description

    Point

    Point Event

    Temporary change in the magnitude of a time series process. The magnitude returns to the former level immediately after the change.

    If Point is selected, Options is defined as duration=0

    Level shift

    Level Shift Event

    Persistent change in the level of a time series process.

    If Level shft is selected, Options is defined as duration=all.

    Ramp

    Ramp Event

    A sudden growth or decay in the trend or slope of a time series process. This change in growth could persist or end when the time series reaches a new level.

    If Ramp is selected, Options is defined as slope=growth, duration=all.

    Temporary change

    Temporary Change Event

    Temporary change in the magnitude. The magnitude decays to the former level after the change.

    If Temporary change is selected, Options is defined as slope=decay,duration=all.
    Note: After you enter the event name and specify an occurrence, a plot shows in the window showing the shape and duration of the event. This plot shows an event that uses the Temporary Change type with a recurrence every six months.

    Event plot with the name Promotions

  4. Click Edit options to open the Event Options window. Use this window to set the duration of each occurrence of the event.
    Event Options
    Duration

    Enter an integer for the number of observations immediately after the occurrence where the event reoccurs.

    This field is disabled if Apply to all occurrences is selected.

    Apply to all occurrences

    Check this to apply the periods to all occurrences of the event. Occurrences are defined later in this process.

    Time of each occurrence

    Select one of the following.

    • On the specified period — The event is set as defined in the occurrence.
    • Relative to the specified period — The event is offset by a specified number of observations.
    Direction of the offset

    Select Earlier or Later to specify the direction of the offset from the occurrence. This field is disabled if Time of each occurrence is set to On the specified period.

    Magnitude of the offset

    Enter an integer to determine the number of observations to include before or after the event.

    This field is disabled if Time of each occurrence is set to On the specified period.

    When you are finished defining the duration of the event, click OK to return to the Create Event window.
  5. Click add occurrence to open the Select Occurrences window. Use the following fields to define occurrences for the date of the event.
    Select Occurrences
    Occurrences
    Occurrence

    You can select any time period based on the time interval defined for the project.

    Holidays

    You can select predefined events as occurrences.

    For each occurrence that you select, click add custom item to add the item to the Selected column. If you add more than one occurrence or add a holiday as an occurrence, the Recurrence field on the Create Event window is disabled.

    When you have finished defining occurrences, click OK to return to the New Event window. All of the occurrences that you added are listed. You can click add occurrence again to add more occurrences.

  6. To specify the recurrence, click define recurrence to open the Event Recurrence window.
    Note: Before you can specify a recurrence, you must specify an occurrence. However, you cannot specify a recurrence if you have selected two or more occurrences or if you have selected a holiday for the event occurrence.
    Event Recurrence
    Recurrence
    • Select how frequently the event will occur — Specify the interval for the frequency of the event. For example, selecting Month specifies a monthly pattern.
    • Specify how long the recurrence will last — Choose one of these options.
      Indefinitely before and after the selected occurrence date

      The occurrences range from the start date of the historical data to the end date plus three times the horizon.

      Indefinitely starting with and after the selected occurrence date

      The occurrences range from the date of the specified occurrence to the end date of the historical region.

      For this many occurences, starting with the selected occurrence date

      The occurrences range from the date of the specified occurrence date and end on the date of either of the following, whichever comes first.

      • The number of occurrences that you specify
      • The maximum range of the data
      Until this date, starting with the selected occurrence date

      The occurrences range from the specified occurrence date to the date that you specify for this option, or the maximum range of the data, whichever comes first. This value is a SAS date or datetime value and is not selected based on the detected interval of the time series.

    When you are finished defining the recurrence, click OK to return to the New Event window.
  7. When you are finished defining the event, click OK. The Custom events displays the new event in the middle pane.
  8. The usage for the custom event is set to Do not use by default. Select the event on the Data tab and use the right pane to change the usage for the new event.

For each custom event, you can perform the following actions.

Edit event

Opens the Edit Event window for a selected event. Only custom events created in the project can be edited. Predefined events and events imported from an event definition table cannot be edited.

Copy event

Opens the Copy Event window with the settings for the selected event. Use this window to create a new event based on the event that you have selected.

In the list of custom events, you can hover your mouse pointer over an event to see its plot.

Last updated: March 16, 2026