Access Live SAS xpt Data in Excel (Desktop) via Connect AI

Microsoft Excel is a widely used spreadsheet software application, primarily used for tasks related to data management, analysis, and visualization. When combined with CData Connect AI, you gain immediate access to SAS xpt data directly within Excel, facilitating data analysis, collaboration, calculations, and more.This article shows how to connect to SAS xpt in your Connect AI instance and access live SAS xpt data in Excel spreadsheets.

CData Connect AI provides a pure cloud-to-cloud interface for SAS xpt, allowing you to easily access live SAS xpt data in Excel for the web. Simply use the Connect AI Add-In to query live data (or write your own). Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect AI pushes all supported query operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to SAS xpt, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return SAS xpt data.

Configure SAS xpt Connectivity for Excel

Connectivity to SAS xpt from Excel is made possible through CData Connect AI. To work with SAS xpt data from Excel, we start by creating and configuring a SAS xpt connection.

1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection

2. Select "SAS xpt" from the Add Connection panel

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to SAS xpt.

   Connecting to Local SASXpt Files

   You can connect to local SASXpt file by setting the URI to a folder containing SASXpt files.

   Connecting to S3 data source

   You can connect to Amazon S3 source to read SASXpt files. Set the following properties to connect:

   • URI: Set this to the folder within your bucket that you would like to connect to.
   • AWSAccessKey: Set this to your AWS account access key.
   • AWSSecretKey: Set this to your AWS account secret key.
   • TemporaryLocalFolder: Set this to the path, or URI, to the folder that is used to temporarily download SASXpt file(s).

   Connecting to Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2

   You can connect to ADLS Gen2 to read SASXpt files. Set the following properties to connect:

   • URI: Set this to the name of the file system and the name of the folder which contacts your SASXpt files.
   • AzureAccount: Set this to the name of the Azure Data Lake storage account.
   • AzureAccessKey: Set this to our Azure DataLakeStore Gen 2 storage account access key.
   • TemporaryLocalFolder: Set this to the path, or URI, to the folder that is used to temporarily download SASXpt file(s).
   
4. Click Save & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add SAS xpt Connection page and update the User-based permissions.

With the connection configured, you are ready to connect to SAS xpt data from Excel.

Access Live SAS xpt Data in Excel

The steps below outline connecting to CData Connect AI from Excel to access live SAS xpt data.

1. Open Excel, create a new sheet (or open an existing one).
2. Click Insert and click Get Add-ins. (if you have already installed the Add-In, jump to step 4).
3. Search for CData Connect AI Add-In and install the Add-in.
4. Click Data and open the CData Connect AI Add-In.
5. In the Add-In panel, click Authorize to authenticate with your CData Connect AI instance
6. In the CData Connect AI panel in Excel, click Import
7. Choose a Connection (e.g. SASXpt1), Table (e.g. SampleTable_1), and Columns to import
8. Optionally add Filters, Sorting, and a Limit
9. Click Execute to import the data

Live Access to SAS xpt Data from Cloud Applications

Now, you have a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to live SAS xpt data from your Excel workbook. You can add more data to your workbook for calculations, aggregations, collaboration, and more.

Try CData Connect AI and get real-time data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications.