Access Live SAS Data Sets Data in Excel 365 Online (Excel for the web)

Microsoft Excel for the web represents a cloud-native iteration of Microsoft Excel. When integrated with CData Connect AI, you gain immediate access to SAS Data Sets data directly from within Excel. This access facilitates data analysis, collaborative work, calculations, and more. This article provides a step-by-step guide on connecting to SAS Data Sets within your Connect AI instance and accessing live SAS Data Sets data in Excel for the web spreadsheets, whether for viewing or updating purposes.

CData Connect AI provides a pure cloud-to-cloud interface for SAS Data Sets, allowing you to easily access live SAS Data Sets data in Excel for the web. Simply use the Connect AI Add-In to query live data (or write your own). Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect AI pushes all supported query operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to SAS Data Sets, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return SAS Data Sets data.

Configure SAS Data Sets Connectivity for Excel

Connectivity to SAS Data Sets from Excel is made possible through CData Connect AI. To work with SAS Data Sets data from Excel, we start by creating and configuring a SAS Data Sets connection.

1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection

2. Select "SAS Data Sets" from the Add Connection panel

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 & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add SAS Data Sets Connection page and update the User-based permissions.

With the connection configured, you are ready to connect to SAS Data Sets data from Excel for the web.

Access Live SAS Data Sets Data in Excel for the web

The steps below outline connecting to CData Connect AI from Excel to access live SAS Data Sets data.

1. Log into Excel, create a new sheet (or open an existing one).
2. Click Insert and click Office Add-ins. (if you have already installed the Add-In, jump to step 4).
3. Search for CData Connect Spreadsheets Add-In and install the Add-in.
4. Click Data and open the CData Connect Spreadsheets Add-In.
5. In the Add-In panel, click Login or Sign-up to authenticate with your CData Connect AI instance
6. In the CData Connect Spreadsheets panel in Excel, click Import
7. Choose a Connection (e.g. SASDataSets1), Table (e.g. restaurants), and Columns to import
8. Optionally add Filters, Sorting, and a Limit
9. Click Execute to import the data

Update SAS Data Sets Data from Excel

In addition to viewing SAS Data Sets data in Excel, CData Connect AI also lets you update and delete SAS Data Sets data. Begin by importing data (as described above).

1. Update any cell or cells with changes you want to push to SAS Data Sets (your changes will be in red)
2. In the CData Connect Spreadsheets Add-In panel, select Update
3. Optionally highlight the cell(s) you wish to update and select an update option ("Update All" or "Update Selected")
4. Click Execute to push the updates to SAS Data Sets

A notification will appear when the update is complete

Live Access to SAS Data Sets Data from Cloud Applications

New, you have a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to live SAS Data Sets data from your Excel workbook. You can add more data to your workbook for calculations, aggregations, collaboration, and more.

Try CData Connect AI and get real-time data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications.