Query SAS Data Sets Data in ColdFusion

The CData JDBC Driver for SAS Data Sets seamlessly integrates connectivity to SAS Data Sets data with the rapid development tools in ColdFusion. This article shows how to connect to SAS Data Sets data in ColdFusion and query SAS Data Sets tables.

Create a JDBC Data Source for SAS Data Sets in ColdFusion

The JDBC data source enables you to execute SQL from standard ColdFusion tags like cfquery and CFScript like executeQuery.

1. Copy the driver JAR and .lic file from the installation directory onto the ColdFusion classpath. For example, copy the files into C:\MyColdFusionDirectory\cfusion\wwwroot\WEB-INF\lib. Or, open the Java and JVM page in the ColdFusion Administrator and enter the path to the files in the ColdFusion Class Path box.

   The JAR and license for the driver are located in the lib subfolder of the installation directory.

   Restart the server after this step.

2. Add the driver as a data source:

   From the ColdFusion administrator interface, expand the Data & Services node and click Data Sources. In the Add New Data Source section, enter a name for the data source and select Other in the Driver menu.

3. Populate the driver properties:

   • JDBC URL: Enter connection properties in the JDBC URL. The JDBC URL begins with jdbc:sasdatasets: and is followed by the connection properties in a semicolon-separated list of name=value pairs.

     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.

     Built-in Connection String Designer

     For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the SAS Data Sets JDBC Driver. Either double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command-line.

     java -jar cdata.jdbc.sasdatasets.jar

     Fill in the connection properties and copy the connection string to the clipboard.

     A typical JDBC URL is below:

     jdbc:sasdatasets:URI=C:/myfolder;
   • Driver Class: Enter the driver class. The driver class is cdata.jdbc.sasdatasets.SASDataSetsDriver.
   • Driver Name: Enter a user-defined name for the driver.
   • Username: Enter the username used to authenticate.
   • Password: Enter the password used to authenticate.

You can now test the connection by enabling the CData SAS Data Sets data source in the Actions column. After reporting a status of OK, the SAS Data Sets data source is ready for use.

Execute Queries

The cfquery tag can pass SQL statements to SAS Data Sets, including INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE.. Use the cfqueryparam tag to create parameterized queries and prevent SQL injection through the query string.

Note: To use the cfquery and cfscript, create a .cfm file. Inside the .cfm file, write the code to execute the query (see below). Place the file directly in the root directory of your web server (e.g., wwwroot in Adobe ColdFusion). Restart the service after placing the file for the changes to take effect.

Below is the equivalent in CFScript:

<cfscript>
result = queryExecute(
  "SELECT * FROM restaurants WHERE cuisine = ?", 
  [
    { value="American", cfsqltype="cf_sql_varchar" }
  ],
  { datasource="CDataSASDataSets" }
);

writeDump( var= result );
</cfscript> 

You can then make requests to your .cfm like the following: