Introduction to How SAS/ACCESS Works

Before you use any SAS/ACCESS features, you must install Base SAS, the SAS/ACCESS interface for the DBMS that you are accessing, and any required DBMS client software. See SAS installation instructions and DBMS client installation instructions for more information.

Not all SAS/ACCESS interfaces support all features. See the DBMS-specific reference section for your SAS/ACCESS interface to determine which features are supported in your environment.

Each SAS/ACCESS interface consists of one or more data access engines that translate read and write requests from SAS into appropriate calls for a specific DBMS. The following image depicts the relationship between a SAS/ACCESS interface and a relational DBMS.

You can call a SAS/ACCESS relational DBMS interface by using either a LIBNAME statement or a PROC SQL statement . (Although you can also use ACCESS and DBLOAD procedures with some of the SAS/ACCESS relational interfaces, these procedures are no longer the recommended way to access relational database data.)