Access Live SAS Data Sets Data in Excel (Desktop) through Connect Spreadsheets
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Your Connect AI account includes Connect Spreadsheets, so you can use the instructions below. You can expect minor differences when referencing the Connect Spreadsheet platform, but the principles still apply!
Microsoft Excel is a widely used spreadsheet software application, primarily used for tasks related to data management, analysis, and visualization. When combined with Connect Spreadsheets by CData, you gain immediate access to SAS Data Sets data directly within Excel, facilitating data analysis, collaboration, calculations, and more. This article shows how to connect to SAS Data Sets in Connect Spreadsheets and access and update live SAS Data Sets data in Excel spreadsheets.
Connect Spreadsheets is the easiest way to get all your live data into Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets - no more downloading, wrangling, and uploading files again. Just connect to your data, select the dataset you'd like to see, and import it into your spreadsheet.
This setup requires a Connect Spreadsheets account and the Connect Spreadsheets Add-In for Excel. To get started, sign up a free trial of Connect Spreadsheets and install the free Connect Spreadsheets Excel Add-In.
Configure SAS Data Sets Connectivity for Excel
Connectivity to SAS Data Sets from Excel is made possible through Connect Spreadsheets. To work with SAS Data Sets data from Excel, we start by creating and configuring a SAS Data Sets connection.
- Log into Connect Spreadsheets, click Connections and click Add Connection
- Select "SAS Data Sets" from the Add Connection panel
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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.
- Click Create & Test
- Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add SAS Data Sets Connection page and update the User-based permissions.
With the connection configured, you are ready to connect to SAS Data Sets data from Excel.
Access Live SAS Data Sets Data in Excel
The steps below outline connecting to Connect Spreadsheets from Excel to access live SAS Data Sets data.
- Open Excel, create a new sheet (or open an existing one).
- Click Insert and click Get Add-ins. (if you have already installed the Add-In, jump to step 4).
- Search for Connect Spreadsheets and install the Add-in.
- Click Data and open the CData Connect Spreadsheets Add-In.
- In the Add-In panel, click "Log in" to authenticate with your Connect Spreadsheets account
- In the Connect Spreadsheets panel in Excel, click Import
- Choose a Connection (e.g. SASDataSets1), Table (e.g. restaurants), and Columns to import
- Optionally add Filters, Sorting, and a Limit
- Click Execute to import the data and opt to overwrite the existing sheet or create a new one.
Update SAS Data Sets Data from Excel
In addition to viewing SAS Data Sets data in Excel, Connect Spreadsheets also lets you update and delete SAS Data Sets data. Begin by importing data (as described above).
- Update any cell or cells with changes you want to push to SAS Data Sets (your changes will be in red)
- In the Connect Spreadsheets Add-In panel, select Update
- Optionally highlight the cell(s) you wish to update and select an update option ("Update All" or "Update Selected")
- Click Execute to push the updates to SAS Data Sets
A notification will appear when the update is complete
Live Access to SAS Data Sets Data from Spreadsheet Apps
New, you have a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to live SAS Data Sets data from your Excel workbook. You can add more data to your workbook for calculations, aggregations, collaboration, and more.
Try Connect Spreadsheets and get real-time data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from Microsoft Excel.