Date:         Mon, 26 May 1997 13:51:35 -0400
Reply-To:     Dave Riba <a_riba@PIPELINE.COM>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@UGA.CC.UGA.EDU>
From:         Dave Riba <a_riba@PIPELINE.COM>
Subject:      Re: ODBC
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

 On Friday May 23, Michael Raithel posted the following:
 
 > Jason, the ODBC reference that "put it all together" for me was S.
 > David Riba and Elisabeth A. Riba's paper:   "ODBC: Windows to the
 > Outside World".  This paper is very well written, and provides an
 > excellent introduction to--and discussion of--the whole topic.
 
 > David has presented/published this paper at several SAS conferences.
 > The most recent one that I am aware of is the NESUG'96 conference held
 > in Boston Massachusetts.  The paper can be found on pages  382 - 391 of
 > the NESUG '96 Proceedings.  If you are not from the North East, you
 > could also look for that paper in either your area SUG proceedings, or
 > possibly in an older SUGI proceedings.
 
Michael, your glowing praise is embarassing.  Enough already, your check is
in the mail.
 
For those interested, the paper is in the SUGI Proceedings ('95 and '96), and
the Proceedings of the following Regional SAS USers Groups meetings --
SESUG ('95 and '96), NESUG ('95 and '96), MWSUG ('95 and '96), and SCSUG ('95).
Sorry about the repeats, but it WAS a popular topic <<G>>.  There were some
minor updates in the '96 versions of the paper.
 
I will be teaching a one-day seminar on DDE and ODBC at SESUG, NESUG, MWSUG,
and SCSUG this fall.  The morning session will be on using DDE with SAS,
and the afternoon session will be on using ODBC with SAS.  Watch for the
SUG Registration Packets (out later this month) for complete information.
Each half-day can be registered for independently.
 
Back to Jason Jones' original question.  Microsoft Access can indeed be used to
"front end" SAS.  Make sure that you have a SAS DSN (Data Source Name) properly
configured.  The SAS ODBC driver is provided at no charge (read FREE) from
SAS Institute.  When you structure your SQL Query in MS Access, you will need to
specify that the Query is a SQL Pass-Thru Query (found under SQL Specific on
the Query drop-down menu).  From there be prepared for a bit of trial and error
in order to properly structure the SQL Query to pass thru the ODBC gateway.
 
Also, if you are truly looking to make Access a front-end to SAS, rather than
merely passing information thru the SQL gateway, you might want to take a look
at the DDE Hotlink.  Hotlink passes information directly between the Server
and Client applications.  The primary drawback is that both Client and Server
(SAS and MS Access, for example) need to be running for DDE Hotlink to work.
There is an old example of how to do this in the SAS Sample Library
(DDE5.SAS).
With DDE Hotlink running, entries in MS Access are loaded directly into a SAS
dataset (running in the background).  No user interaction is required.  It works
very nicely with Excel.  Again, be prepared for a bit of tweaking for MS Access.
 
Hope the above has been helpful.
 
Dave Riba
 
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  S. David Riba                     INTERNET:    0006495817@mcimail.com
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