Self-Service Data Access

SAS Visual Analytics offers a variety of ways for non-administrative users to bring data into the SAS Visual Analytics environment, which enables you to work with your data quickly. The following list summarizes the different ways:

Import data from a file

When you are creating data queries, explorations, or reports, you can import data from a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, a delimited text file (CSV), or a SAS data set. After you import the data into the SAS LASR Analytic Server, it is ready to use.

Import SAS data set on a server

You can direct the SAS Application Server to import a SAS data set that is already on the server. The import process is optimized and you can import large files when a SAS data set is already on the server.

Import a database table

After providing connection information, you can transfer a table from a database to a SAS LASR Analytic Server. Afterward, you can use the in-memory table as is for reports and explorations, or you can prepare it for analysis using the data builder.

Note: Your site must license and configure the related SAS/ACCESS engine to use this feature.

Import data from Facebook, Google Analytics, or Twitter

After authenticating with Facebook, Google Analytics, or Twitter and providing search criteria, you can import data into memory on a SAS LASR Analytic Server. You can then use the unstructured data with the explorer. For example, a typical exploration of Twitter data can perform text analysis to look for patterns and trends in the tweets.

Tip

The self-service import feature keeps track of your most recently used values for each import type to simplify repeated import actions.