Definition

a table with data, called
- observations, organized in rows
- variables, organized in columns.
descriptor information that describes such things as the number of variables, variable names, time of last file update, and the length and the format of the data.

There are two types of SAS data sets:

a SAS data file contains both the data and the descriptor information. SAS data files have a member type of DATA.
a SAS data view is a virtual data set that points to data from other sources. SAS data views have a member type of VIEW (See SAS Data Views ).

The term "SAS data sets" is used when SAS data views and SAS data files can be used in the same manner.

Audit and backup files are auxilary files that are used to audit the changes made to a data file.

Native or interface files specify either files that are created by SAS, or files created by other programs.

Native files are SAS data sets that SAS creates. These files have data values and descriptor information formatted by SAS.

Interface files are files created by other programs, such as ORACLE, DB2, or SYBASE. SAS uses special engines to read and write the data. For more information about SAS multiengine architecture, see SAS I/O Engines.