Use the CData ODBC Driver for SAP Business Warehouse in SAS for Real-Time Reporting and Analytics

SAS is a software suite developed for advanced analytics, multivariate analysis, business intelligence, data management, and predictive analytics. When you pair SAS with the CData ODBC Driver for SAP Business Warehouse, you gain database-like access to live SAP Business Warehouse data from SAS, expanding your reporting and analytics capabilities. This article explains how to create a library for SAP Business Warehouse in SAS and create a simple report based on real-time SAP Business Warehouse data.

The CData ODBC Driver offers unmatched performance for interacting with live SAP Business Warehouse data in SAS due to optimized data processing built into the driver. When you issue complex SQL queries from SAS to SAP Business Warehouse, the driver pushes supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to SAP Business Warehouse and utilizes the embedded SQL engine to process unsupported operations (often SQL functions and JOIN operations) client-side. With built-in dynamic metadata querying, you can easily visualize and analyze SAP Business Warehouse data in SAS.

Connect to SAP Business Warehouse as an ODBC Data Source

Information for connecting to SAP Business Warehouse follows, along with different instructions for configuring a DSN in Windows and Linux environments (the ODBC Driver for SAP Business Warehouse must be installed on the machine hosting the SAS System).

To connect to SAP Business Warehouse, set the URL property to a valid SAP Business Warehouse server base URL. The driver must connect to SAP Business Warehouse instances hosted over HTTP with XMLA access.

The driver supports the following authentication schemes via the AuthScheme property:

• None: Anonymous authentication, if available on the server.
• Basic: Set User and Password and set AuthScheme to .
• Kerberos: See the Using Kerberos section of the help documentation for the required Kerberos properties.

By default, the driver attempts to negotiate SSL/TLS by checking the server's certificate against the system's trusted certificate store. To specify another certificate, see the SSLServerCert property for the available formats.

When you configure the DSN, you may also want to set the Max Rows connection property. This will limit the number of rows returned, which is especially helpful for improving performance when designing reports and visualizations.

Windows

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.

Linux

If you are installing the CData ODBC Driver for SAP Business Warehouse in a Linux environment, the driver installation predefines a system DSN. You can modify the DSN by editing the system data sources file (/etc/odbc.ini) and defining the required connection properties.

/etc/odbc.ini

[CData SAPBusinessWarehouse Sys]
Driver = CData ODBC Driver for SAP Business Warehouse
Description = My Description
URL = https://mysapserver:8000
AuthScheme = Basic
User = username
Password = password

For specific information on using these configuration files, please refer to the help documentation (installed and found online).

Create a SAP Business Warehouse Library in SAS

Connect to SAP Business Warehouse in SAS by adding a library based on the CData ODBC Driver for SAP Business Warehouse.

1. Open SAS and expand Libraries in the Explorer pane.
2. In the Active Libraries window, right-click and select New.
3. Name your library (odbclib), select ODBC as the Engine, and click to Enable at startup (if you want the library to persist between sessions).
4. Set Data Source to the DSN you previously configured and click OK. 👁 Creating a library for SAP Business Warehouse in SAS.
   

Create a View from a SAP Business Warehouse Query

SAS natively supports querying data either using a low-code, point-and-click Query tool or programmatically with PROC SQL and a custom SQL query. When you create a View in SAS, the defining query is executed each time the view is queried. This means that you always query live SAP Business Warehouse data for reports, charts, and analytics.

Using the Query Tool

1. In SAS, click Tools -> Query
2. Select the table sources and the table(s) you wish to pull data from. Then, click OK. 👁 Selecting table(s) to visualize.
   
3. Select columns and right-click to add filtering, ordering, grouping, etc. 👁 Selecting columns(s) to visualize and configuring the query.
   
4. Create a local view to contain the query results by right-clicking the SQL Query Tool window, selecting Show Query, and clicking Create View. Name the View and click OK. 👁 Create a local view to work with SAP Business Warehouse data.
   

Using PROC SQL

1. In SAS, navigate to the Editor window.
2. Use PROC SQL to query the data and create a local view.
   NOTE: This procedure creates a view in the Work library. You can optionally specify a library in the create view statement.

   proc sql;
    create view sales_view as
    select 
    customercount, 
    city 
    from 
    odbclib.sales 
    where 
    Country = 'US';
   quit;
   

3. Click Run -> Submit to execute the query and create a local view.

Report On or Visualize SAP Business Warehouse Data in SAS

With a local view created, you can report, visualize, or otherwise analyze SAP Business Warehouse data using the powerful SAS features. Print a simple report using PROC PRINT and create a basic graph based on the data using PROC GCHART.

Print an HTML Report

1. In SAS, navigate to the Editor window.
2. Use PROC PRINT to print an HTML report for the SAP Business Warehouse Sales data.

   proc print data=sales;
    title "SAP Business Warehouse Sales Data";
   run;
   

   👁 A simple SAP Business Warehouse data report.
   

Print a Chart

1. In SAS, navigate to the Editor window.
2. Use PROC GCHART to create a chart for the Sales data.

   proc gchart data=sales;
    pie customercount / sumvar=city
    value=arrow
    percent=arrow
    noheading
    percent=inside plabel=(height=12pt)
    slice=inside value=none
    name='SalesChart';
   run;
   

   👁 A simple SAP Business Warehouse data chart.