Features Supported by the SAS Providers

These features are common to all of the SAS providers:
  • integrated SAS formatting services, which are the included core set of SAS formats used when reading or modifying data
  • use of basic OLE DB schema rowsets, which enable consumers to obtain metadata about the data source that they use
The following table lists provider-specific functionality.
Feature Comparison
Provider-Specific Features
Local Provider
IOM Provider
OLAP Provider
SAS/SHARE Provider
Base SAS Provider
supports random access by using the ADO (adOpenDynamic) cursor type and recordset bookmarks
yes
yes
no
yes
yes
supports simultaneous user updates
no
yes
no
yes
yes
supports SQL processing
no
yes
no
yes
yes
provides read and update access to all data sets available in a SAS session
no
yes
no
yes
yes
provides a choice of either exclusive access (member-level lock) or multiple user access (record-level lock) to SAS data files, selectable on a per-rowset open basis
no1
yes
no
yes
yes
provides access to SAS data files via Version 7 and later SAS/SHARE servers
no
no
no
yes
no
provides access to SAS data files on Version 8 and later SAS Workspace Servers
no
yes
no
no
no
provides access to SAS cubes on SAS 9.1 and later SAS OLAP Servers
no
no
yes
no
no
provides access to SAS data files via Version 7 and later Base SAS installations
no
no
no
no
yes
provides read-only access to Version 6 and later SAS data sets created on a Windows system without a SAS session
yes
no
no
no
no
provides read-only access to transport files and data sets created by SAS Version 7 or later on any of the following platforms: Solaris, HP-UX, RS 6000 AIX, MIPS Intel ABI, Windows, OS/2, OpenVMS. Does not require a SAS session.
yes
no
no
no
no
supports MDX processing
no
no
yes
no
no
1The local provider always enforces member-level locking.