A
SAS/ACCESS view is an interface
view, also called a view descriptor, which accesses DBMS data that
is defined in a corresponding access descriptor.
Using
SAS/ACCESS software,
you can create an access descriptor and one or more view descriptors
in order to define and access some or all of the data described by
one DBMS table or DBMS view. You can also use view descriptors in
order to update DBMS data, with certain restrictions.
In addition, some
SAS/ACCESS
products provide a dynamic LIBNAME engine interface. If available,
it is recommended that you use
SAS/ACCESS LIBNAME statement to assign
a SAS libref to your DBMS data because it is more efficient and easier
to use than access descriptors and view descriptors. The
SAS/ACCESS
dynamic LIBNAME engine enables you to treat DBMS data as if it were
SAS data by assigning a SAS libref to DBMS objects. Using a
SAS/ACCESS
dynamic LIBNAME engine means that you can use both native DATA step
views and native PROC SQL views to access DBMS data instead of view
descriptors.
See
About SAS/ACCESS Software or the
SAS/ACCESS documentation for your database for
more information about
SAS/ACCESS features.
Note: Starting in SAS 9, PROC SQL
views are the preferred way to access relational DBMS data. You can
convert existing
SAS/ACCESS view descriptors into PROC SQL views by
using the CV2VIEW procedure, enabling you to use the LIBNAME statement
to access your data. See the CV2VIEW Procedure in
SAS/ACCESS for Relational Databases: Reference.