Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
without the additional complexity of a full server. SAS SPD Engine can read and write
data stores in SPD Server format.
To use SAS SPD Engine to access tables in SAS SPD Server format, metadata for a
SAS SPD Engine library must be defined and saved to a metadata repository. To access
the tables, SAS Data Integration Studio will use the default SAS application server or
the server that is specified in the metadata for the library.
Libraries for Custom SAS Formats
A format is an instruction that SAS uses to write data values. You use formats to
control the written appearance of data values, or, in some cases, to group data values
together for analysis. Some SAS tables use custom column formats that are stored in a
SAS library.
Note:
You do not need to enter metadata for a library that contains custom SAS
formats. However, if a table uses custom formats that are stored in a SAS library, the
library of formats must be available to the SAS application server that is used to
display data in the table or to execute code for the table.
For details about setting up a SAS format library, see the user-defined formats
section in the connecting to common data sources chapter in the
SAS Intelligence
Platform: Administration Guide
.
DBMS Libraries
To access tables in a database management system (DBMS) such as Oracle or DB2,
metadata for the DBMS server and the appropriate DBMS library must be defined and
saved to a metadata repository. See also the following sections about Open Database
Connectivity (ODBC) libraries and OLE DB libraries.
ODBC Libraries
ODBC is an application programming interface (API). ODBC provides a standard
interface for SQL databases. An application that uses the ODBC interface can connect
to any database that has an ODBC driver, such as Microsoft Access, Microsoft Excel,
Borland dBase, or IBM DB2. Use ODBC libraries when an interface for a specific
DBMS is not available and the DBMS complies with ODBC.
To use ODBC to access tables, the following requirements must be met:
The appropriate ODBC driver must be available on the computer where the
database resides.
Metadata for the ODBC database server must be available in a current metadata
repository.
For example, assume that you want to access tables in a Microsoft Access database
and the database resides on a computer with the Microsoft Windows XP Professional
operating system. You could use the ODBC Data Source Administrator administrative
tool to define Microsoft Access as a system data source on that computer. You might
create a system data source called msdb, for example. (A system data source can be
more useful than a user data source because it is available to all users and to NT
services on that computer.)
After the ODBC data source has been defined, an administrator could use SAS
Management Console to enter metadata for the ODBC database server. The ODBC
database server is the computer where the ODBC-compliant database resides. The
metadata for the ODBC database server includes the network address for that
computer, as well as the relevant ODBC driver (such as the msdb data source) on that
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