SAS Processing

Types of Input to a SAS Program

You can use different sources of input data in your SAS program:

SAS data sets

can be one of two types:

SAS data files	store actual data values. A SAS data file consists of a descriptor portion that describes the data in the file, and a data portion.
SAS views	contain references to data stored elsewhere. A SAS view uses descriptor information and data from other files. It enables you to dynamically combine data from various sources, without using storage space to create a new data set. SAS views consist of DATA step views, PROC SQL views, and SAS/ACCESS views. In most cases, you can use a SAS view as if it were a SAS data file.

For more information, see SAS Data Files, and SAS Views.

Raw data

specifies unprocessed data that have not been read into a SAS data set. You can read raw data from two sources:

External files	contain records comprised of formatted data (data is arranged in columns) or free-formatted data (data that are not arranged in columns).
Instream data	is data included in your program. You use the DATALINES statement at the beginning of your data to identify the instream data.

For more information about raw data, see Reading Raw Data.

Remote access

allows you to read input data from nontraditional sources such as a TCP/IP socket or a URL. SAS treats this data as if it were coming from an external file. SAS allows you to access your input data remotely in the following ways:

SAS catalog	specifies the access method that enables you to reference a SAS catalog as an external file.
FTP	specifies the access method that enables you to use File Transfer Protocol (FTP) to read from or write to a file from any host computer that is connected to a network with an FTP server running.
TCP/IP socket	specifies the access method that enables you to read from or write to a Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) socket.
URL	specifies the access method that enables you to use the uniform resource locator (URL) to read from and write to a file from any host computer that is connected to a network with a URL server running.

For more information about accessing data remotely, see FILENAME, CATALOG Access Method; FILENAME, FTP Access Method; FILENAME, SOCKET Access Method; and FILENAME, URL Access Method statements in the Statements section of SAS Language Reference: Dictionary.

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