SAS/ACCESS® Interface to ADABAS

SAS/ACCESS Interface to ADABAS brings together the resources you need for effective information delivery and lets you put these resources to work in a dynamic, syntax-free environment. With this out-of-the-box solution, you get the power and flexibility of SAS^® to analyze and present data directly from your database.

Database integrity is not at risk because SAS/ACCESS fully supports the existing security features of ADABAS. Access to the database can be provided to as many, or as few, users as necessary.

With SAS/ACCESS Interface to ADABAS, you create a view to describe the specific data you would like to access in your SAS application. SAS uses the ADABAS FDT (File Description Table) or the NATURAL or PREDICT system file for DDM descriptions. You begin by creating an access descriptor, which tells SAS the essential information about the ADABAS file or NATURAL DDM you want to access (i.e., the NATURAL DDM name, ADABAS file number, field names and data types). Then, you create a view descriptor to let SAS know which subsets of the data (typically specific rows, fields or occurrences of periodic groups or multiple-value fields) you would like to use as input.

SAS then reads the data values just as if they were in a SAS data file. You are always assured that you are using the most current data because the data is read directly from the table into your SAS application. You save disk space because the data remains in the database. Only the descriptive information is stored in the view.

Structured Query Language can also be used to update, delete or insert data into the ADABAS file or NATURAL DDM you have described in your view descriptor. With SAS SQL, you can combine data from different supported databases with each other and with SAS data files to form a single output table.

In addition to creating views that describe ADABAS data, SAS/ACCESS allows you to extract data directly from the database table and place the data in a SAS data file. You'll find these capabilities especially helpful if you are producing multiple reports or graphs with the same data.