Build a Simple VCL Application for SAS Data Sets Data

Embarcadero RAD Studio provides a development environment for Delphi and C++Builder applications. With the CData ODBC Driver for SAS Data Sets, you gain access to live SAS Data Sets data within RAD Studio, abstracting the data into tables, views, and stored procedures that can be used to retrieve and update SAS Data Sets data. This article will walk through connecting to SAS Data Sets and creating a simple VCL application with the Form Designer.

Create a Connection to SAS Data Sets Data

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.

You can then follow the steps below to use the Data Explorer to create a FireDAC connection to SAS Data Sets data.

1. In a new VCL Forms application, expand the FireDAC node in the Data Explorer.
2. Right-click the ODBC Data Source node in the Data Explorer.
3. Click Add New Connection.
4. Enter a name for the connection.
5. In the FireDAC Connection Editor that appears, set the DataSource property to the name of the ODBC DSN for SAS Data Sets.

Create VCL Applications with Connectivity to SAS Data Sets Data

Follow the procedure below to start executing queries to SAS Data Sets data from a simple VCL application that displays the results of a query in a grid.

1. Drop a TFDConnection component onto the form and set the following properties:

   • ConnectionDefName: Select the FireDAC connection to SAS Data Sets data.
   • Connected: Select True from the menu and, in the dialog that appears, enter your credentials.

2. Drop a TFDQuery component onto the form and set the properties below:

   • Connection: Set this property to the TFDConnection component, if this component is not already specified.

   • SQL: Click the button in the SQL property and enter a query. For example:

     SELECT name, borough FROM restaurants WHERE cuisine = 'American'
   • Active: Set this property to true.

3. Drop a TDataSource component onto the form and set the following property:

   • DataSet: In the menu for this property, select the name of the TFDQuery component.

4. Drop a TDBGrid control onto the form and set the following property:

   • DataSource: Select the name of the TDataSource.
5. Drop a TFDGUIxWaitCursor onto the form — this is required to avoid a run-time error.

You now have an executable application that displays the results of the SQL Query set in the TFDQuery object.