DM01
Database Conversion: What about our programs?
Invited
John E. Bentley
Wachovia Bank
Abstract:
Using SAS to extract, analyze, and report data from an Oracle, DB2, Informix, or other RDBMS-based data marts is quite common nowadays. But what happens to your data analysts when the underlying database is converted from, say, Oracle to Informix? The data
model changes, table and field names change, fields are dropped, and tables are added, dropped and consolidated. The SQL that used to work now doesn't. When the data mart has dozens of tables and hundreds of fields, and there are dozens of users and dozen
s of SAS programs, the conversion effort can appear to be overwhelming--production schedules must continue to be met, ad hoc requests must be serviced, and at the same time the users must convert and test their programs. This paper will present a metadata-
driven SAS application that was used in an Oracle to Informix conversion and is being used now for a DB2 to Informix conversion. The application has a SAS/AF interface, but can be run with only Base SAS. The presentation will focus on the process and flow
of the application and not the coding, so all levels of SAS users will find something useful in the presentation.
Biography:
John has been a SAS professional since 1987 in the healthcare, insurance, and banking industries. He is currently a Vice President with the Corporate Data Management Group at Wachovia Bank, where he designs and develops SAS client-server applications and f
ront-ends for the bank's data warehouse and data marts. John is a Certified SAS Professional, Version 8 and regularly present as SAS User Group conferences. He was co-chair of the SUGI 27 Data Warehousing and Enterprise Solutions section and is chairing th
e SUGI 28 Systems Architecture section.