What's New in SAS Data Integration Studio 4.4

Overview

The main enhancements for SAS Data Integration Studio 4.4 include the following:
  • New SQL Transformations
  • New DB2 Bulk Table Loader
  • Experimental Support for Apache™ Hadoop™
  • Other New Features

New SQL Transformations

All SQL transformations are now grouped into a single folder called SQL, which is near the bottom of the Transformations tree. The existing Join, Extract, and Set Operators transformations have been moved to this folder. Six new transformations have been added to broaden and simplify SQL operations in SAS Data Integration Studio jobs.
The following transformations have been added in this release:
  • The Delete transformation generates a PROC SQL statement that deletes user-selected rows in a single target table. The target table must come from a database management system that provides an implementation of the SQL Delete DML command for which a SAS/ACCESS interface is available.
  • The Merge transformation inserts new rows and updates existing rows using the SQL Merge DML command. The command was officially introduced in the SQL:2008 standard.
  • The Update transformation updates user-selected columns in a single target table. The target columns can be updated by case, constant, expression, or subquery. The table must come from a database management system that provides an implementation of the SQL Update DML command for which a SAS/ACCESS interface is available.
  • The Execute transformation enables you to specify custom SQL code to be executed. It provides SQL templates for supported databases.
  • The Insert Rows transformation provides a simple SQL interface for inserting rows into tables.
  • The Create Table transformation provides a simple SQL interface for creating tables.
The new transformations include a new Query Builder window, a simplified interface for building SQL queries.

New DB2 Bulk Table Loader

The new DB2 Bulk Table Loader transformation can take large amounts of data from SAS or most DBMS source tables and bulk load it to a DB2 target. This loader supports multiple load techniques: Import, Load, CLiLoad, and CLiLoad with truncate. It inserts bulk load options where needed. The loader can generate table statistics after the table has been bulk loaded, in order to guide performance tuning.

Experimental Support for Apache Hadoop

Apache Hadoop is an open-source software project that supports scalable, distributed computing. SAS Data Integration Studio has a number of experimental transformations that support Hadoop. For more information, contact SAS Technical Support.

Other New Features

More than 70 minor enhancements and bug fixes are included in this release. Here are some of the most notable enhancements.
The version control feature supports additional releases of Concurrent Versions System server (CVS).
A Fix Warning control has been added to the toolbar on the Mapping tab for transformations. This control can be used to fix problems with automatic column mappings. For example, you can use the control to change the target column properties so that they match the source column properties.
The Code tab in the property windows for transformations now has a Scroll to User Written Code control. This control becomes active when you select User Written Body on this tab.
You can now control whether SAS formats and informats are automatically applied to table columns when you register tables or when code is generated for tables.
By default, SAS Data Integration Studio now looks up user credentials rather than explicitly including them in the code that it generates when it accesses tables in a library.
You can now control whether new instances of most SQL transformations use explicit SQL pass-through processing by default.
The Mining Results transformation now displays the UUID of the specified project and model. The Precode and Postcode tab for transformations now retains the location of code files selected on that tab. The external file wizards were updated to better handle double-byte character data. Various fixes were made to address localization, migration, and customer-reported issues.