SAS/ACCESS Software for PC File Formats: Reference

SAS System Passwords for SAS/ACCESS Descriptors

The SAS System enables you to control access to SAS data sets and access descriptors by associating one or more SAS System passwords with them. You must first create the descriptor files before assigning SAS passwords to them, as described in Assigning Passwords. Password and Descriptor Interaction summarizes the levels of protection that SAS System passwords have and their effects on access descriptors and view descriptors.

Password and Descriptor Interaction
READ= WRITE= ALTER=

access descriptor no effect on descriptor no effect on descriptor protects descriptor from being read or edited

view descriptor protects PC file data from being read or updated protects PC file data from being updated protects descriptor from being read or edited

***Password and Descriptor Interaction***
	READ=	WRITE=	ALTER=
access descriptor	no effect on descriptor	no effect on descriptor	protects descriptor from being read or edited
view descriptor	protects PC file data from being read or updated	protects PC file data from being updated	protects descriptor from being read or edited

When you create view descriptors, you can use a SAS data set option after the ACCDESC= option to specify the access descriptor's password (if one exists). In this case, you are not assigning a password to the view descriptor that is being created. Rather, using the password grants you permission to use the access descriptor to create the view descriptor. For example:

proc access dbms=dbf
     accdesc=adlib.customer(alter=rouge);
  create vlib.customer.view;
  select all;
run;

By specifying the ALTER-level password, you can read the ADLIB.CUSTOMER access descriptor and therefore create the VLIB.CUSTOMER view descriptor.

For detailed information on the levels of protection and the types of passwords you can use, refer to your base SAS software documentation.

Assigning Passwords

To assign, change, or delete a SAS password, use the DATASETS procedure's MODIFY statement. Here is the basic syntax for using PROC DATASETS to assign a password to an access descriptor, a view descriptor, or a SAS data file:

PROC DATASETS LIBRARY= libref MEMTYPE= member-type;

MODIFY member-name (password-level= password-modification);

RUN;

In this syntax statement, the password-level argument can have one or more of the following values: READ=, WRITE=, ALTER=, or PW=. PW= assigns read, write, and alter privileges to a descriptor or data file. The password-modification argument enables you to assign a new password or to change or delete an existing password. For example, this PROC DATASETS statement assigns the password MONEY with the ALTER level of protection to the access descriptor ADLIB.SALARIES

proc datasets library=adlib memtype=access;
   modify salaries (alter=money);
run;

In this case, you are prompted for the password whenever you try to browse or edit the access descriptor or to create view descriptors that are based on ADLIB.SALARIES.

In the next example, the PROC DATASETS statement assigns the passwords MYPW and MYDEPT with READ and ALTER levels of protection to the view descriptor VLIB.JOBC204:

proc datasets library=vlib memtype=view;
   modify jobc204 (read=mypw alter=mydept);
run;

In this case, you are prompted for the SAS passwords when you try to read the PC file data, or try to browse or edit the view descriptor VLIB.JOBC204 itself. You need both levels to protect the data and descriptor from being read. However, you could still update the data accessed by VLIB.JOBC204, for example, by using a PROC SQL UPDATE statement. Assign a WRITE level of protection to prevent data updates.

To delete a password on an access descriptor or any SAS data set, put a slash after the password:

proc datasets library=vlib memtype=view;
   modify jobc204 (read=mypw/ alter=mydept/);
run;

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