While you can
generally treat view descriptors like SAS data files in SAS programs,
there are a few things that you should keep in mind:
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It is sometimes
better to extract
CA-Datacom/DB data and place it in a SAS data file than to read it directly.
Here are some circumstances when you should probably extract:
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If you plan to use the same
CA-Datacom/DB data in several
procedures in the same session, you might improve performance by extracting
the
CA-Datacom/DB data.
Placing this data in a SAS data file requires a certain amount of
disk space to store the data and I/O to write the data. However,
SAS data files are organized to provide optimal performance with PROC
and DATA steps. Programs using SAS data files often use less CPU
time than when they read
CA-Datacom/DB data directly.
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If you plan to read large amounts
of data from a
CA-Datacom/DB table and the data is being shared by several users (multi-user
environment), your direct reading of the data could adversely affect
all users' response times.
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If you are the creator of a table,
and you think that directly reading this data would present a security
risk, you might want to extract the data and not distribute information
about either the access descriptor or view descriptor.
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If you intend to use
the data in a particular sorted order several times, it is usually
more efficient to run the SORT procedure on the view descriptor, using
the OUT= option, than to request the same sort repeatedly (with a
SORT clause) on the
CA-Datacom/DB data. Note that you cannot run the SORT procedure on a view descriptor
unless you use the SORT procedure's OUT= option.
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Sorting data can be resource-intensive,
whether it is done with the SORT procedure, with a BY statement, or
with a SORT clause included in the view descriptor. When you use
a SAS BY statement with a view descriptor, it is most efficient to
use a BY column that is associated with an indexed
CA-Datacom/DB field. Also, if you do not
need a certain order, blank out the Default Key. Otherwise, you might
cause an unnecessary sort.
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If you use a Default
Key, the interface view engine uses an index read instead of a sort
if it can. Index reads are faster, but not always possible. For
example, an index read is not possible if you specify multiple sort
keys, multiple WHERE clause conditions, or a WHERE clause condition
with a column that is not a key.
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When you are writing a SAS program and referencing a
view descriptor, it is more efficient to use a WHERE statement in
the program than it is to use a sub-setting IF statement. The interface
view engine passes the WHERE statement as
CA-Datacom/DB selection criteria to the view descriptor, connecting
it (with the AND operator) to any WHERE clause included in the view
descriptor. Applying a WHERE clause to the
CA-Datacom/DB data might reduce the number of records processed,
which often improves performance.
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You can provide your own URT with
options that are fine-tuned for your applications.
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