A PostgreSQL Interface for SAS xpt Data

There are a vast number of PostgreSQL clients available on the Internet. From standard Drivers to BI and Analytics tools, PostgreSQL is a popular interface for data access. Using our JDBC Drivers, you can now create PostgreSQL entry-points that you can connect to from any standard client.

To access SAS xpt data as a PostgreSQL database, use the CData JDBC Driver for SAS xpt and a JDBC foreign data wrapper (FDW). In this article, we compile the FDW, install it, and query SAS xpt data from PostgreSQL Server.

Connect to SAS xpt Data as a JDBC Data Source

To connect to SAS xpt as a JDBC data source, you will need the following:

• Driver JAR path: The JAR is located in the lib subfolder of the installation directory.

• Driver class: cdata.jdbc.sasxpt.SASXptDriver

• JDBC URL: The URL must start with "jdbc:sasxpt:" and can include any of the connection properties in name-value pairs separated with semicolons.

  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).

  Built-in Connection String Designer

  For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the SAS xpt JDBC Driver. Either double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command-line.

  java -jar cdata.jdbc.sasxpt.jar

  Fill in the connection properties and copy the connection string to the clipboard.

  A typical JDBC URL is below:

  jdbc:sasxpt:URI=C:/folder;

Build the JDBC Foreign Data Wrapper

The Foreign Data Wrapper can be installed as an extension to PostgreSQL, without recompiling PostgreSQL. The jdbc2_fdw extension is used as an example (downloadable here).

1. Add a symlink from the shared object for your version of the JRE to /usr/lib/libjvm.so. For example: ln -s /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/server/libjvm.so /usr/lib/libjvm.so
2. Start the build: make install USE_PGXS=1

Query SAS xpt Data as a PostgreSQL Database

After you have installed the extension, follow the steps below to start executing queries to SAS xpt data:

1. Log into your database.
2. Load the extension for the database: CREATE EXTENSION jdbc2_fdw;
3. Create a server object for SAS xpt: CREATE SERVER SASXpt FOREIGN DATA WRAPPER jdbc2_fdw OPTIONS ( drivername 'cdata.jdbc.sasxpt.SASXptDriver', url 'jdbc:sasxpt:URI=C:/folder;', querytimeout '15', jarfile '/home/MyUser/CData/CData\ JDBC\ Driver\ for\ Salesforce MyDriverEdition/lib/cdata.jdbc.sasxpt.jar');
4. Create a user mapping for the username and password of a user known to the MySQL daemon. CREATE USER MAPPING for postgres SERVER SASXpt OPTIONS ( username 'admin', password 'test');
5. Create a foreign table in your local database: postgres=# CREATE FOREIGN TABLE sampletable_1 ( sampletable_1_id text, sampletable_1_Id text, sampletable_1_Column1 numeric) SERVER SASXpt OPTIONS ( table_name 'sampletable_1');