SAS/Warehouse Administrator Metadata Types

Overview of SAS/Warehouse Administrator Metadata Types

This section describes the metadata types that are defined for SAS/Warehouse Administrator. These types are grouped under the WHOUSE component. They are stored in the SASHELP.DWAPI catalog. For a complete list of these types, see Index to SAS/Warehouse Administrator Metadata Types.

To use a metadata type, you pass its ID (such as WHDETAIL) to the metadata API methods listed in Index to Metadata API Methods.

What Is a Metadata Type?

A metadata type is a template that models the metadata for a particular kind of object in an application. For example, the metadata type WHDETAIL models the metadata that is maintained for a detail table in SAS/Warehouse Administrator. WHDETAIL's parameter list matches the items of metadata maintained for a detail table, such as ID, NAME, COLUMNS, and INPUT SOURCES.

A three-level metadata identifier (REPOSID.TYPEID.INSTANCEID) is passed to methods that are used to read or write metadata. The type ID in this identifier, such as WHDETAIL, specifies a metadata type that describes the content of the metadata to be read or written.

You can use all metadata types with the read methods. See Writing Metadata for a discussion of metadata types and write methods.

Metadata Repository Types

You can store an application's metadata in a repository. A metadata repository type is a template that models the metadata for a particular kind of metadata repository. For example, the metadata repository type WHDWENV models the metadata for an environment repository in SAS/Warehouse Administrator. WHDWENV's parameter list matches the items of metadata that are maintained for an environment, such as ID, NAME, DESCRIPTION, and LIBRARY.

Repository types are used with the Repository Methods that are described in Index to Metadata API Methods. These methods are used to attach to a given repository so that its metadata can be read or written.

SAS/Warehouse Administrator has a partitioned metadata repository. Each primary repository stores metadata that is shared by all warehouses in an environment. Each secondary repository stores metadata for an individual warehouse in an environment. Accordingly, there are two metadata repository types for SAS/Warehouse Administrator:

WHDWENV: specifies the metadata repository type for a data warehouse environment. For details, see WHDWENV.

WHDW: specifies the metadata repository type for a data warehouse. For details, see WHDW.

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