SAS/ACCESS Software for Relational Databases: Reference

Dynamic Prompting for DBMS Connection Options

In Version 6 of SAS/ACCESS software, users stored their DBMS connection information, such as usernames and passwords, in SAS programs, or in encrypted form within an access or view descriptor. Beginning in Version 7, you can specify DBMS connection information in a more dynamic, interactive manner by using the LIBNAME option, DBPROMPT=. When you specify DBPROMPT=YES on the LIBNAME statement, as in the following example, a dialog window appears to prompt the user to enter connection information, such as a username and password.

libname myoralib oracle dbprompt=yes defer=no;

When this LIBNAME statement is issued, a prompt window appears. The window contains the DBMS connection options that are valid for the SAS/ACCESS engine that is being used, in this case, ORACLE.

This feature provides several advantages. DBMS account passwords are protected because they do not need to be stored in a SAS program or descriptor file. Also, when a password or username changes, the SAS program does not need to be modified. Another advantage is that the same SAS program can be used by any valid username and password combination that is specified during execution. You can also use connection options in this interactive manner when you want to run a program on a production server instead of testing a server without making modifications to your code. By using the prompt window, the new server name can be specified dynamically.

Note: This option is not available in the SAS/ACCESS Interface to DB2 Under OS/390. [cautionend]

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