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Load SAS Data Sets Data to a Database Using Embulk



Use CData JDBC drivers with the open source ETL/ELT tool Embulk to load SAS Data Sets data to a database.

Embulk is an open source bulk data loader. When paired with the CData JDBC Driver for SAS Data Sets, Embulk easily loads data from SAS Data Sets to any supported destination. In this article, we explain how to use the CData JDBC Driver for SAS Data Sets in Embulk to load SAS Data Sets data to a MySQL dtabase.

With built-in optimized data processing, the CData JDBC Driver offers unmatched performance for interacting with live SAS Data Sets data. When you issue complex SQL queries 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 client-side (often SQL functions and JOIN operations).

Configure a JDBC Connection to SAS Data Sets Data

Before creating a bulk load job in Embulk, note the installation location for the JAR file for the JDBC Driver (typically C:\Program Files\CData\CData JDBC Driver for SAS Data Sets\lib).

Embulk supports JDBC connectivity, so you can easily connect to SAS Data Sets and execute SQL queries. Before creating a bulk load job, create a JDBC URL for authenticating with 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.

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.

Below is a typical JDBC connection string for SAS Data Sets:

jdbc:sasdatasets:URI=C:/myfolder;

Load SAS Data Sets Data in Embulk

After installing the CData JDBC Driver and creating a JDBC connection string, install the required Embulk plugins.

Install Embulk Input & Output Plugins

  1. Install the JDBC Input Plugin in Embulk.
    https://github.com/embulk/embulk-input-jdbc/tree/master/embulk-input-jdbc
  2. embulk gem install embulk-input-jdbc
  3. In this article, we use MySQL as the destination database. You can also choose SQL Server, PostgreSQL, or Google BigQuery as the destination using the output Plugins.
    https://github.com/embulk/embulk-output-jdbc/tree/master/embulk-output-mysql embulk gem install embulk-output-mysql

With the input and output plugins installed, we are ready to load SAS Data Sets data into MySQL using Embulk.

Create a Job to Load SAS Data Sets Data

Start by creating a config file in Embulk, using a name like sasdatasets-mysql.yml.

  1. For the input plugin options, use the CData JDBC Driver for SAS Data Sets, including the path to the driver JAR file, the driver class (e.g. cdata.jdbc.sasdatasets.SASDataSetsDriver), and the JDBC URL from above
  2. For the output plugin options, use the values and credentials for the MySQL database

Sample Config File (sasdatasets-mysql.yml)

in: type: jdbc driver_path: C:\Program Files\CData[product_name] 20xx\lib\cdata.jdbc.sasdatasets.jar driver_class: cdata.jdbc.sasdatasets.SASDataSetsDriver url: jdbc:sasdatasets:URI=C:/myfolder; table: "restaurants" out: type: mysql host: localhost database: DatabaseName user: UserId password: UserPassword table: "restaurants" mode: insert

After creating the file, run the Embulk job.

embulk run sasdatasets-mysql.yml

After running the the Embulk job, find the Salesforce data in the MySQL table.

Load Filtered SAS Data Sets Data

In addition to loading data directly from a table, you can use a custom SQL query to have more granular control of the data loaded. You can also perform increment loads by setting a last updated column in a SQL WHERE clause in the query field.

in: type: jdbc driver_path: C:\Program Files\CData[product_name] 20xx\lib\cdata.jdbc.sasdatasets.jar driver_class: cdata.jdbc.sasdatasets.SASDataSetsDriver url: jdbc:sasdatasets:URI=C:/myfolder; query: "SELECT name, borough FROM restaurants WHERE [RecordId] = 1" out: type: mysql host: localhost database: DatabaseName user: UserId password: UserPassword table: "restaurants" mode: insert

More Information & Free Trial

By using CData JDBC Driver for SAS Data Sets as a connector, Embulk can integrate SAS Data Sets data into your data load jobs. And with drivers for more than 200+ other enterprise sources, you can integrate any enterprise SaaS, big data, or NoSQL source as well. Download a 30-day free trial and get started today.