Use the CData ODBC Driver for SAS Data Sets in MicroStrategy Desktop

MicroStrategy is an analytics and mobility platform that enables data-driven innovation. When paired with the CData ODBC Driver for SAS Data Sets, you gain database-like access to live SAS Data Sets data from MicroStrategy, expanding your reporting and analytics capabilities. In this article, we walk through adding SAS Data Sets as a data source in MicroStrategy Desktop and creating a simple visualization of SAS Data Sets data.

The CData ODBC Driver offers unmatched performance for interacting with live SAS Data Sets data in MicroStrategy due to optimized data processing built into the driver. When you issue complex SQL queries from MicroStrategy to SAS Data Sets, the driver pushes supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to SAS Data Sets 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 visualize and analyze SAS Data Sets data using native MicroStrategy data types.

Connect to SAS Data Sets as an ODBC Data Source

Information for connecting to SAS Data Sets follows, along with different instructions for configuring a DSN in Windows and Linux environments.

Set the following connection properties to connect to your SAS DataSet files:

Connecting to Local Files

• Set the Connection Type to "Local." Local files support SELECT, INSERT, and DELETE commands.
• Set the URI to a folder containing SAS files, e.g. C:\PATH\TO\FOLDER\.

Connecting to Cloud-Hosted SAS DataSet Files

While the driver is capable of pulling data from SAS DataSet files hosted on a variety of cloud data stores, INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE are not supported outside of local files in this driver.

Set the Connection Type to the service hosting your SAS DataSet files. A unique prefix at the beginning of the URI connection property is used to identify the cloud data store and the remainder of the path is a relative path to the desired folder (one table per file) or single file (a single table). For more information, refer to the Getting Started section of the Help documentation.

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 SAS Data Sets 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 SASDataSets Sys]
Driver = CData ODBC Driver for SAS Data Sets
Description = My Description
URI = C:/myfolder

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

Connect to and Visualize SAS Data Sets Data using MicroStrategy Desktop

In addition to connecting SAS Data Sets in MicroStrategy enterprise products, you can connect to SAS Data Sets in MicroStrategy Desktop. Follow the steps below to add SAS Data Sets data as a dataset and create visualizations and reports of SAS Data Sets data.

1. Open MicroStrategy Desktop and create a new dossier.
2. In the datasets panel, click New Data, select Databases, and select Type a Query as the Import Option.
3. Add a new data source and choose DSN data sources.
4. Choose the DSN you previously configured (likely CData SASDataSets Sys) and select Generic DBMS in the Version menu.
5. Set the User and Password properties for the DSN (or use placeholder values) and name the data source.
👁 Creating a new data source for SAS Data Sets.

6. Select the new database instance to view the tables. You may need to manually click the search icon in the Available Tables section to see the tables.
7. Create a SQL query for the SAS Data Sets data (see below) and click Execute SQL to test the query.

   SELECT * FROM restaurants
   

   👁 Querying SAS Data Sets for data.
   NOTE: Since we create a live connection, we can execute a SELECT * query and utilize the filtering and aggregation features native to the MicroStrategy products.
8. Click Finish and choose to connect live.
9. Choose a visualization, choose fields to display (data types are discovered automatically through dynamic metadata discovery) and apply any filters to create a new visualization of SAS Data Sets data. Where possible, the complex queries generated by the filters and aggregations will be pushed down to SAS Data Sets, while any unsupported operations (which can include SQL functions and JOIN operations) will be managed client-side by the CData SQL Engine embedded in the driver. 👁 Visualize SAS Data Sets data.
   
10. Once you are finished configuring the dossier, click File -> Save.

Using the CData ODBC Driver for SAS Data Sets in MicroStrategy Desktop, you can easily create robust visualizations and reports on SAS Data Sets data. Read our other articles on connecting to SAS Data Sets in MicroStrategy and connecting to SAS Data Sets in MicroStrategy Web for more examples.