The ACCESS Procedure for Relational Databases

Overview: ACCESS Procedure

The ACCESS procedure is still supported for the database systems and environments on which it was available in SAS 6. However, it is no longer the recommended method for accessing relational DBMS data. It is recommended that you access your DBMS data more directly, using the SAS/ACCESS LIBNAME statement or the SQL pass-through facility.

Not all SAS/ACCESS interfaces support this feature. See features by host to determine whether this feature is available in your environment.

The ACCESS procedure, along with the DBLOAD procedure and an interface view engine, creates an interface between SAS and data in other vendors' databases. You can use the ACCESS procedure to create and update descriptors.

About ACCESS Procedure Statements

The ACCESS procedure has several types of statements:

Database connection statements are used to connect to your DBMS. For details, see SAS/ACCESS documentation for your DBMS.
Creating and updating statements are CREATE statement and UPDATE statement.
Table and editing statements include ASSIGN, DROP, FORMAT, LIST, QUIT, RENAME, RESET, SELECT, SUBSET, TABLE, and UNIQUE.

This table summarizes PROC ACCESS options and statements that are required to accomplish common tasks.

Statement Sequence for Accomplishing Tasks with the ACCESS Procedure

Task

Statements and Options to Use

Create an access descriptor

PROC ACCESS statement-options;

CREATE libref.member-name.ACCESS;
database-connection-statements;
editing-statements;

RUN;

Create an access descriptor and a view descriptor

PROC ACCESS statement-options;

CREATE libref.member-name.ACCESS;
database-connection-statements;
editing-statements;

CREATE libref.member-name.VIEW;

SELECT column-list;
editing-statements;

RUN;

Create a view descriptor from an existing access descriptor

PROC ACCESS statement-options, including ACCDESC=libref.access-descriptor;

CREATE libref.member-name.VIEW;

SELECT column-list;
editing-statements;

RUN;

Update an access descriptor

PROC ACCESS statement-options;

UPDATE libref.member-name.ACCESS;
database-connection-statements;
editing-statements;

RUN;

Update an access descriptor and a view descriptor

PROC ACCESS statement-options;

UPDATE libref.member-name.ACCESS;
database-connection-statements;
editing-statements;

UPDATE libref.member-name.VIEW;
editing-statements;

RUN;

Update an access descriptor and create a view descriptor

PROC ACCESS statement-options;

UPDATE libref.member-name.ACCESS;
database-connection-statements;
editing-statements;

CREATE libref.member-name.VIEW;

SELECT column-list;
editing-statements;

RUN;

Update a view descriptor from an existing access descriptor

PROC ACCESS statement-options, including ACCDESC=libref.access-descriptor;

UPDATE libref.member-name.VIEW;
editing-statements;

RUN;

Create a SAS data set from a view descriptor

PROC ACCESS statement-options, including DBMS=dbms-name; VIEWDESC=libref.member; OUT=libref.member;

RUN;

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