SAS/ACCESS Software for Relational Databases: Reference

Choosing a SAS/ACCESS Feature

In SAS/ACCESS software, there are often several ways to complete a given task. In addition to the SQL Procedure Pass-Through Facility, you can now use the SAS/ACCESS LIBNAME statement to access DBMS tables and views directly. Also, the ACCESS and DBLOAD procedures provided in Version 6 of SAS/ACCESS are still supported.

Note: Some of these features might not be available in your SAS/ACCESS interface. See your DBMS chapter for more information. [cautionend]

SAS/ACCESS Features for Specific Tasks provides a list of common tasks and the features that you can use to accomplish them. When choosing a feature to use for complex or data-intensive operations, you might want to test more than one method to determine the most efficient one for your particular task.

Note: The following abbreviations are used in the table:

LIBNAME statement refers to the Version 7 and later SAS/ACCESS LIBNAME statement.
Pass-Through refers to the SQL Procedure Pass-Through Facility.
View descriptors refer to view descriptors that are created in the ACCESS procedure.

SAS/ACCESS Features for Specific Tasks
If you want to... you can use one of these SAS/ACCESS features:

read DBMS tables or views LIBNAME statement

Pass-Through

view descriptors

create DBMS tables LIBNAME statement

DBLOAD procedure

Pass-Through EXECUTE statement

update. delete, or insert rows into DBMS tables LIBNAME statement

view descriptors

Pass-Through EXECUTE statement

append data to DBMS tables DBLOAD procedure with APPEND option

LIBNAME statement and APPEND procedure

Pass-Through EXECUTE statement

list DBMS tables LIBNAME statement and SAS Explorer window

LIBNAME statement and DATASETS procedure

LIBNAME statement with CONTENTS procedure

LIBNAME statement and PROC SQL dictionary tables (table note 1)

delete DBMS tables or views LIBNAME statement and SQL procedure's DROP TABLE statement

LIBNAME statement and DATASETS procedure's DELETE statement

Pass-Through EXECUTE statement

***SAS/ACCESS Features for Specific Tasks***
If you want to...	you can use one of these SAS/ACCESS features:
read DBMS tables or views	LIBNAME statement
	Pass-Through
	view descriptors
create DBMS tables	LIBNAME statement
	DBLOAD procedure
	Pass-Through EXECUTE statement
update. delete, or insert rows into DBMS tables	LIBNAME statement
	view descriptors
	Pass-Through EXECUTE statement
append data to DBMS tables	DBLOAD procedure with APPEND option
	LIBNAME statement and APPEND procedure
	Pass-Through EXECUTE statement
list DBMS tables	LIBNAME statement and SAS Explorer window
	LIBNAME statement and DATASETS procedure
	LIBNAME statement with CONTENTS procedure
	LIBNAME statement and PROC SQL dictionary tables (table note 1)
delete DBMS tables or views	LIBNAME statement and SQL procedure's DROP TABLE statement
	LIBNAME statement and DATASETS procedure's DELETE statement
	Pass-Through EXECUTE statement

TABLE NOTE 1:

See the SQL dictionary tables documentation for more information.

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