SAS data
sets (tables) are the default SAS storage format. You can use them
to store data of any granularity. A SAS table is a SAS file stored
in a SAS library that SAS creates and processes. A SAS table contains
data values that are organized as a table of observations (rows) and
variables (columns) that can be processed by SAS software. A SAS table
also contains descriptor information such as the data types and lengths
of the columns, as well as which engine was used to create the data.
For more information about using default SAS storage, see
SAS Language Reference: Concepts and
SAS Data Set Options: Reference. The following
figure shows how connectivity to SAS data sets is configured.