SAS ® PASSTHRU to Microsoft SQL Server using ODBC

I wish I could live in SAS World; I do much of my data analysis there. However, my current environment houses all production data in Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 data warehouses. Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database with its own dialect of SQL (T-SQL or Transact-SQL.) SAS/ACCESS ® Interface to ODBC has several methods of retrieving SQL Server data for analyzing in SAS. Here’s an introduction to both implicit and explicit PASSTHRU (or, Pass-Through) with some hints for deciding which to apply. Explicit PASSTHRU will execute T-SQL code syntax inside SQL Server, while implicit PASSTHRU will use your SAS DATA step or PROC SQL code. Several useful options will be explained. No prior experience with ODBC is necessary.