Reading data from a SAS datafile
SAS is one of the leading analytics suites, providing robust commercial tools for decision making in many different fields. Kettle can read files written in SAS' specialized data format known as
sas7bdat using a new (since Version 4.3) input step called SAS Input. While SAS does support other format types (such as CSV and Excel), sas7bdat is a format most similar to other analytics packages' special formats (such as Weka's ARFF file format). This recipe will show you how to do it.
Why read a SAS file?
There are two main reasons for wanting to read a SAS file as part of a Kettle process. The first is that a dataset created by a SAS program is already in place, but the output of this process is used elsewhere in other Business Intelligence solutions (for instance, using the output for integration into reports, visualizations, or other analytic tools). The second is when there is already a standard library of business logic and rules built in Kettle that the...
