How to Access Live SAS Data Sets Data in Power Automate Desktop via ODBC

The CData ODBC Driver for SAS Data Sets enables you to access live SAS Data Sets data in workflow automation tools like Power Automate. This article shows how to integrate SAS Data Sets data into a simple workflow, moving SAS Data Sets data into a CSV file.

Through optimized data processing, CData ODBC Drivers offer unmatched performance for interacting with live SAS Data Sets data in Microsoft Power Automate. When you issue complex SQL queries from Power Automate 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 (e.g. SQL functions and JOIN operations).

Connect to SAS Data Sets as an ODBC Data Source

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.

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.

When you configure the DSN, 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 workflows.

Integrate SAS Data Sets Data into Power Automate Workflows

After configuring the DSN for SAS Data Sets, you are ready to integrate SAS Data Sets data into your Power Automate workflows. Open Microsoft Power Automate, add a new flow, and name the flow.

In the flow editor, you can add the actions to connect to SAS Data Sets, query SAS Data Sets using SQL, and write the query results to a CSV document.

Add an Open SQL Connection Action

Add an "Open SQL connection" action (Actions -> Database) and configure the properties.

• Connection string: DSN=CData SAS Data Sets Source

After configuring the action, click Save.

Add an Execute SQL Statement Action

Add an "Execute SQL statement" action (Actions -> Database) and configure the properties.

• Get connection by: SQL connection variable
• SQL connection: %SQLConnection% (the variable from the "Open SQL connection" action above)
• SQL statement: SELECT * FROM restaurants

After configuring the action, click Save.

Add a Write to CSV File Action

Add a "Write to CSV file" action (Actions -> File) and configure the properties.

• Variable to write to: %QueryResult% (the variable from the "Execute SQL statement" action above)
• File path: set to a file on disk
• Configure Advanced settings as needed.

After configuring the action, click Save.

Add a Close SQL Connection Action

Add a "Close SQL connection" action (Actions -> Database) and configure the properties.

• SQL Connection: %SQLConnection% (the variable from the "Open SQL connection" action above)

After configuring the action, click Save.

Save & Run the Flow

Once you have configured all the actions for the flow, click the disk icon to save the flow. Click the play icon to run the flow.

Now you have a workflow to move SAS Data Sets data into a CSV file.

With the CData ODBC Driver for SAS Data Sets, you get live connectivity to SAS Data Sets data within your Microsoft Power Automate workflows.

Related Power Automate Articles

This article walks through using the CData ODBC Driver for SAS Data Sets with Power Automate Desktop. Check out our other articles for more ways to work with Power Automate (Desktop & Online):

• SAS Data Sets Data in Power Automate Desktop using CData Connect
• SAS Data Sets Data in Power Automate (Online) using CData Connect