To be a candidate for pass-through to a DBMS, a PROC SQL query must contain a reference to a single libref from a SAS/ACCESS libname engine, and the query must contain at least one of the following:

• JOINS (inner or outer).
• The DISTINCT keyword.
• SQL AGGREGATE functions.
• UNIONS.

When these conditions are met, the SQL textualizer parses the SAS query to determine whether the candidate query should be passed through to the DBMS. If the query contains any of the following SAS-specific elements, it is not passed through:

• Data set options.
• INTO clause.

Prior to Release 8.2 of SAS, if the query contained any SAS functions, it would not be passed through. However, beginning with Release 8.2 of SAS, the ACCESS libname engines do support a subset of SAS functions for which underlying DBMSs have equivalents. Queries that contain these supported functions are passed along with the query to the DBMS.

Note: SAS functions do not by themselves trigger a pass-through. Instead, a query must be a candidate for pass-through as described above. Once the query is a candidate, any SAS function for which the DBMS engine has an equivalent is simply passed along with the rest of the query.

You can find information about which SAS functions are supported by which ACCESS libname engines, in the SAS Online Help for SAS/ACCESS, Release 8.2.

Operating System and Release Information