Specifies whether to turn on tracing information for use in debugging.
| Valid in: | SAS/ACCESS LIBNAME statement, CONNECT statement |
|---|---|
| Category: | Data Set Control |
| Default: | NO [Amazon Redshift, Aster, Google BigQuery, Greenplum, HAWQ, Impala, Microsoft SQL Server, Netezza, ODBC, PostgreSQL, SAP HANA, SAP IQ, Snowflake, Yellowbrick] |
| None [Vertica] | |
| Restriction: | PostgreSQL, Yellowbrick: This option is valid only on a Windows platform. |
| Data source: | Amazon Redshift, Aster, Google BigQuery, Greenplum, HAWQ, Impala, Microsoft SQL Server, Netezza, ODBC, PostgreSQL, SAP HANA, SAP IQ, Snowflake, Vertica, Yellowbrick |
| Notes: | Support for HAWQ was added in SAS 9.4M3. |
| Support for Amazon Redshift was added in the April 2016 release of SAS/ACCESS. | |
| Support for Snowflake was added in the August 2019 release of SAS/ACCESS. | |
| Support for Google BigQuery was added in the August 2019 release of SAS/ACCESS. However, as of a December 2025 update on SAS 9.4M9, this option is no longer used for Google BigQuery and is silently ignored. | |
| Support for Yellowbrick was added in SAS 9.4M7. | |
| The default for Vertica changed from NO to none in the November 2024 update for SAS/ACCESS on SAS 9.4M8. | |
| See: | TRACEFILE= LIBNAME option |
Table of Contents
specifies that tracing is turned on, and the DBMS driver manager writes each function call to the trace file that TRACEFILE= specifies.
specifies that tracing is not turned on.
For supported ACCESS engines, this option enables ODBC logging. This feature records the sequence of ODBC calls that are made by SAS to the underlying database, including connection attempts, SQL execution, and data retrieval operations.
The ODBC logging is written to an external file. To specify the file, use the TRACEFILE= option.
ODBC logging can be particularly useful for troubleshooting connectivity or performance issues because it shows the interactions between SAS and the database engine. By examining the logged events, administrators and developers can verify which SQL statements are being issued, identify potential translation or driver-level problems, and better understand how SAS leverages ODBC to communicate with external data sources.
Due to the additional overhead, this ODBC logging is typically enabled only when detailed diagnostics are needed. In most cases, the SASTRACE= system option is preferred as the first-level diagnostic tool, with ODBC logging reserved for deeper analysis. See also SASTRACE= SAS System Option.