SAS Institute. The Power to Know

Export raster data to a SAS data set

To export raster data from an ArcMap layer to a SAS data set:

  1. Select the raster to be exported and right-click.

  2. Select Export to a SAS data set from the pop-up menu.
    Note: If you don't see this menu item, you must first add it as an extension to ArcMap.

  3. Choose to export All or only a selected band.

  4. Specify the SAS server to which the raster data is to be exported.
    Note: The list of available servers is generated from the SAS OLE database connections defined in ArcCatalog. The default SAS server is the first one in the list. If you select a different SAS server, then it becomes the default server for subsequent exports. If a connection fails, then the next one in the list is tried until a connection is successful.
    If, and only if, the list of available servers is empty (because no SAS OLE database connection has been defined in ArcCatalog), then the SAS Bridge for ESRI attempts to use a local installation of SAS (which it names Local SAS).
    However, if a local installation of SAS is not available, then you must use ArcCatalog to add an OLE database connection.

  5. Specify the path and filename to be exported to. (If, and only if, you are exporting to a local SAS server, you can browse to the output location by clicking the File Open button. )
    By default, the data is written to SASUSER to a data set named Export_Output.sas7bdat. You can direct the output to any directory to which you have write access, and you can change the name from Export_Output to any valid SAS data set name. On subsequent exports, the name defaults to the last name that you entered.
    Note: When raster data is exported, an additional SAS data set is created (with the suffix _meta) that contains metadata about the raster data.
    Note: If the data set already exists, and if you choose Replace or Append, then that same action is performed on an existing metadata file. If you choose Append and a metadata file does not exist, then the export will fail. You can choose Replace instead to create a metadata file.

  6. Click OK.
Exporting ArcMap data to a SAS data set