Visualize SAS Data Sets Data in Sisense

Sisense lets you join, analyze, and picture data to make more intelligent business decisions and craft effective strategies. The CData JDBC Driver for SAS Data Sets makes it easy to integrate with SAS Data Sets data in Sisense. This article shows how to create an ElastiCube that connects to SAS Data Sets data and use the ElastiCube to visualize SAS Data Sets data in Sisense.

Configure the Connection to SAS Data Sets

Before creating the ElastiCube, note the installation location for the JAR file for the JDBC Driver (typically C:\Program Files\CData\CData JDBC Driver for SAS Data Sets 20XX\lib) or copy the jar file (cdata.jdbc.sasdatasets.SASDataSets.jar) to a new folder in the Sisense JDBC driver directory (typically C:\ProgramData\Sisense\DataConnectors\jdbcdrivers).

1. In the Data page of the Sisense application, create a new ElastiCube (or open an existing one).
2. In the Model Editor, click "+ Data" to open the Add Data dialog box.
3. Click Generic JDBC to open the JDBC settings.
4. Set the connection string property to the JDBC URL for SAS Data Sets, adding required properties.

   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.

   When you configure the JDBC URL, you may also want to set the Max Rows connection property. This will limit the number of rows returned, which is especially helpful for improving performance when designing reports and visualizations.

   A typical example follows:

   jdbc:sasdatasets:URI=C:/myfolder;
5. Set the JDBC JARs folder property to the location of the CData JDBC Driver JAR file (see above).
6. Set the driver's class name to the class name for the JDBC Driver: cdata.jdbc.sasdatasets.SASDataSetsDriver
7. Leave the username and password properties blank.
8. Click Next.

Add SAS Data Sets Data to an ElastiCube

Once you are connected to SAS Data Sets, you can add tables and views to your ElastiCubes.

1. From the Tables list, select the tables and/or views you wish to work with.
2. (Optional) Click "+" to customize the data you want to import with SQL.
3. Click Done.
4. Click Build to build the ElastiCube for analytics.

Visualize SAS Data Sets Data

With SAS Data Sets tables added to your ElastiCube, you can perform analytics on your SAS Data Sets data.

1. Navigate to the Analytics page of the Sisense application
2. Select a Dashboard (or create a new one)
3. Select your Data Source and click Create
4. Click "+ Select Data" and choose fields to add to your visualization.

With the CData JDBC Driver for SAS Data Sets, you can access SAS Data Sets data right in Sisense for powerful visualization and analytics. Download a free, 30-day trial and start working with SAS Data Sets data in Sisense today!