Build Visualizations of Live SAS Data Sets Data in Power BI (through CData Connect)

Power BI transforms your company's data into rich visuals for you to collect and organize so you can focus on what matters to you. When paired with CData Connect (on-premise or in the cloud), you get access to SAS Data Sets data for visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article shows how to use CData Connect to create a virtual database for SAS Data Sets, connect to SAS Data Sets data into Power BI and then create reports on SAS Data Sets data in Power BI.

Create a Virtual SQL Database for SAS Data Sets Data

CData Connect Server uses a straightforward, point-and-click interface to connect to data sources and generate APIs.

1. Login to Connect Server and click Connections.
2. Select "SAS Data Sets" from Available Data Sources.
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to SAS Data Sets.

   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.

4. Click Save Changes
5. Click Privileges -> Add and add the new user (or an existing user) with the appropriate permissions.

With the virtual database created, you are ready to connect to and visualize SAS Data Sets from Power BI.

Query SAS Data Sets Tables

Follow the steps below to build a query to pull SAS Data Sets data into the report:

1. Open Power BI Desktop and click Get Data -> Other -> SQL Server and click "Connect"
2. Set Server to the address and port of your CData Connect instance (localhost:8033 by default) and set Database to the name of the virtual database you just created (SASDataSets1)
3. Use "Database" authentication, enter the credentials for a CData Connect user and click "Connect"
4. Select tables in the Navigator dialog
5. Click Load to import the data into Power BI

Create SAS Data Sets Data Visualizations

After connecting to the data into Power BI, you can create data visualizations in the Report view by dragging fields from the Fields pane onto the canvas. Select the dimensions and measures you wish to visualize along with the chart type.

Click Refresh to synchronize your report with any changes to the data.

SQL Access to SAS Data Sets Data from Data Applications

With CData Connect you have a direct connection to SAS Data Sets data from Power BI. You can import more data, create new visualizations, build reports, and more — all without replicating SAS Data Sets data.

To get SQL data access to 200+ SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources (including SAS Data Sets) directly from your on-premise BI, reporting, ETL and other data applications, visit the CData Connect page and download a free trial.