Date:         Thu, 12 Feb 2009 18:15:57 -0500
Reply-To:     Robbie Shan <ravi.m.shanbhag@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Robbie Shan <ravi.m.shanbhag@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Is there no other way?

Hi,

 I am a newbie to SAS and though I have had considerable experience in
programming with other OO languagues, I am having some trouble trying to
understand how SAS works fundamentally..

 I have read quite some literature about it but am still baffled...

 From what I know, if SAS is to work on data, it needs to pull that data
into its native data set else it cant work on it. Is my understanding
correct?

 The reason I am asking this is because, if I were to work on millons of
records, I cannot think of importing them into my data set while I run
some analysis on it. This for some reason seems very inefficient to me.

 Ideally, I should be able to run some logic against the data (say a
warehouse) and then post it back into the warehouse without having to
store it on my computer!

 Isnt such a thing possible. I am pretty sure, I am missing something out
here... Hoping that the gurus out there would enlighten me..

Regards,
~R