SAS Views

Definition of SAS Views

A SAS view is a type of SAS data set that retrieves data values from other files. A SAS view contains only descriptor information such as the data types and lengths of the variables (columns), plus information that is required for retrieving data values from other SAS data sets or from files that are stored in other software vendors' file formats. SAS views are of member type VIEW. In most cases, you can use a SAS view as if it were a SAS data file.

There are two general types of SAS views:

native view

is a SAS view that is created either with a DATA step or with PROC SQL.

interface view

is a SAS view that is created with SAS/ACCESS software. An interface view can read data from or write data to a database management system (DBMS) such as DB2 or ORACLE. Interface views are also referred to as SAS/ACCESS views. In order to use SAS/ACCESS views, you must have a license for SAS/ACCESS software.

Note: You can create native views that access certain DBMS data by using a SAS/ACCESS dynamic LIBNAME engine. See SAS/ACCESS Views, or the SAS/ACCESS documentation for your DBMS for more information. [cautionend]

Top of Page