Purpose of the SAS/ACCESS Interface to CA-Datacom/DB

SAS/ACCESS software provides an interface between SAS and the CA-Datacom/DB database management system (DBMS). You can perform the following tasks with this SAS/ACCESS interface:

This SAS/ACCESS interface consists of two parts:

The ACCESS procedure enables you to describe CA-Datacom/DB data to SAS. You store the description in SAS/ACCESS descriptor files, which you can use in SAS programs much as you would use SAS data files. You can print, plot, and chart the data described by the descriptor files, use it to create other SAS data files, and so on. Using CA-Datacom/DB Data in SAS Programs presents several examples of using CA-Datacom/DB data in SAS programs. Browsing and Updating CA-Datacom/DB Data shows you how to use descriptor files to update CA-Datacom/DB data from within a SAS program.

The interface view engine is an integral part of the SAS/ACCESS interface, but you do not have to deal directly with the engine. SAS automatically interacts with the engine when you use view descriptors in your SAS programs, so you can simply use CA-Datacom/DB data just as you would use SAS data.

You can combine data from several CA-Datacom/DB tables. Such combinations are not only possible but easy to do. SAS can distinguish among SAS data files, SAS/ACCESS descriptor files, and other types of SAS files, and the software uses the appropriate access method. See Updating a SAS Data File with CA-Datacom/DB Data for an example.