Create a SAS Connection

Follow these steps to create a connection to a SAS data set:
  1. Click the Data Connections tab and click New.
  2. Select SAS Data Set Connection from the drop-down menu.
  3. Enter a name and description for the new connection into the appropriate fields.
  4. Enter the path to the directory that contains the SAS data set that you want to connect to.
  5. Verify that the appropriate option is specified in the Access field. The Default value assigns read-write access. The Read-Only value assigns Read-Only access. The Temp value specifies that the data set is to be treated as a scratch file, which is stored only in memory, not on disk.
  6. Verify that the appropriate option is specified in the Compression field. If you compress data, you might experience a slowdown in performance. The No value specifies that the observations are uncompressed. Use the Yes or Character value to compress character data. Use the Binary value to compress binary data.
  7. Verify that the appropriate option is specified in the Table Locking field. The Share value specifies that other users or processes can read data from the table but prevents other users from updating. The Exclusive value locks tables exclusively, which prevents other users from accessing that table until you close it.
  8. Verify that the appropriate option is specified in the Encoding field. The default value is SAS System encoding. You might select an encoding that is different than the default if you are processing a file with a different encoding.
    Note: You can select an encoding from the drop-down menu. If you enter the first few letters of the desired encoding, the closest match will be added to this field.
  9. The Connection String field displays the connection string for the SAS data set. Check the connection string to see whether the appropriate options encoding has been selected for this connection. You can test the connection by clicking Test Connection.
  10. Click OK to save the new connection.