Work with Live SAS Data Sets Data in Power Query

Power Query is a data transformation and data preparation engine. When paired with CData Connect AI, you get instant, cloud-to-cloud access to SAS Data Sets data from Power Query. This article shows how to connect to Connect AI from Power Query through Microsoft Excel and get live access to SAS Data Sets data for transformation and preparation.

CData Connect AI provides a pure SQL, cloud-to-cloud interface for SAS Data Sets, allowing you to easily integrate with live SAS Data Sets data in Power Query — without replicating the data. CData Connect AI looks exactly like a SQL Server database to Power Query and uses optimized data processing out of the box to push all supported SQL 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 Power Query

Connectivity to SAS Data Sets from Power Query is made possible through CData Connect AI. To work with SAS Data Sets data from Power Query, 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.

Add a Personal Access Token

When connecting to Connect AI through the REST API, the OData API, or the Virtual SQL Server, a Personal Access Token (PAT) is used to authenticate the connection to Connect AI. It is best practice to create a separate PAT for each service to maintain granularity of access.

1. Click on the Gear icon () at the top right of the Connect AI app to open the settings page.
2. On the Settings page, go to the Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
3. Give the PAT a name and click Create.
4. The personal access token is only visible at creation, so be sure to copy it and store it securely for future use.

With the connection configured and a PAT generated, you are ready to connect to SAS Data Sets data from Power Query.

Working with Live SAS Data Sets Data in Power Query

With the connection to Connect AI configured, you are ready to work with live SAS Data Sets data in Power Query.

1. In Microsoft Excel, open the Power Query Editor (from the Data ribbon, click Get Data -> Launch Power Query Editor)
2. Click New Source -> SQL Server
3. In the SQL Server database modal:
   • Set Server to tds.cdata.com,14333
   • (Optional) Set Database to the name of the SAS Data Sets connection (e.g. SASDataSets1 )
   
4. In the SQL Server credentials modal, select "Database" and
   • Set User to your Connect AI username (e.g. [email protected] )
   • Set Password to the PAT for the above user
   
5. Click Connect
6. Select the table(s) you wish to work with in the Navigator and click "OK"

At this point, you have live access to SAS Data Sets data from Power Query for transformation and preparation.

SQL Access to SAS Data Sets Data

Now you have a direct connection to live SAS Data Sets data from Microsoft Power Query. You can create more connections and transform and preparte your data to better drive business — all without replicating SAS Data Sets data.

To get real-time data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications, sign up for a free trial of CData Connect AI.