| SAS/ACCESS Interface To ADABAS: Reference |
SAS/ACCESS software uses SAS/ACCESS descriptor
files to establish a connection between the SAS System and ADABAS.
You create these files with the ACCESS procedure.
There are two types of SAS/ACCESS descriptor files: access descriptors and view
descriptors.
Relationship among ADABAS Data, an Access Descriptor, and View Descriptors
illustrates the relationships among ADABAS data,
an access descriptor, and view descriptors.
Relationship among ADABAS Data, an Access Descriptor, and View Descriptors
![[IMAGE]](./images/01133922.gif)
Access descriptor
files are of member type ACCESS. Each access descriptor holds essential information
about the ADABAS data you want to access,
for example, the ADABAS file number
or NATURAL Data Definition Module (DDM) name, the data field names, and their
data types. It also contains corresponding information related to the SAS
System, such as the SAS variable names, formats, and informats.
An access descriptor can describe only one ADABAS file
or DDM; that is, you cannot join two ADABAS files
or DDMs with a single access descriptor.
View descriptor
files are sometimes called views because their member type is
VIEW. This book uses the term view descriptor to distinguish
them from views that are created by the SAS SQL procedure.
Each view descriptor can define all of the data or a
particular subset of the data described by one access descriptor (and therefore
one ADABAS file or DDM). For example,
you may want to use only three or four possible data fields and only some
of the logical records. The view descriptor allows you to select the data
fields you want and, by specifying selection criteria, to select only the
specific data you want. For example, your selection criteria might be that
the date of transaction is July 3, 1987, and that customers' names begin with
W.
Typically, for each access descriptor, you will have
several view descriptors, selecting different subsets of data.
You can join data from multiple ADABAS files
or NATURAL DDMs with the SAS System SQL procedure. The SQL procedure can join
data from SAS data files, PROC SQL views, and SAS/ACCESS view descriptors
into one resulting file. In addition, SAS/ACCESS view descriptors can come
from different database management systems. For examples that use the SQL
procedure, see Using ADABAS Data in SAS Programs
and Browsing and Updating ADABAS Data.
Copyright © 1999 by SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA. All rights reserved.
