Data Types for Aster

Overview

Every column in a table has a name and a data type. The data type tells Aster how much physical storage to set aside for the column and the form in which the data is stored. This section includes information about Aster data types and data conversions.

SAS/ACCESS Interface to Aster does not directly support TIMETZ or INTERVAL types. Any columns using these types are read into SAS as character strings.

For information about Aster data types and to determine which data types are available for your version of Aster, see your Aster documentation.

Supported Aster Data Types

Here are the data types that the Aster engine supports.

• Character data:

  CHAR(n)

  VARCHAR(n)

• Numeric data:

  BIGINT	DOUBLE | DOUBLE PRECISION
  SMALLINT	REAL
  INTEGER	DECIMAL | DEC | NUMERIC | NUM

  Note: When performing calculations on numeric values and when storing numeric values, SAS maintains up to 15 digits of precision. When you read values that contain more than 15 decimal digits of precision from a database into SAS, the values that SAS reads are rounded to meet this condition. When you use a large numeric value in a WHERE clause, this rounding can cause unexpected results, such as not selecting desired rows. For noncomputational purposes, such as storing ID values or credit card numbers, you can read the data in as character data. For more information, see Your Options When Choosing Your Needed Degree of Precision.
• Date, time, and timestamp data:

  DATE	TIMESTAMP
  TIME

  Note: Be aware that columns of these data types can contain data values that are out of range for SAS.

LIBNAME Statement Data Conversions

This table shows the default formats that SAS/ACCESS Interface to Aster assigns to SAS variables when using the LIBNAME statement to read from an Aster table. These default formats are based on Aster column attributes.

This table shows the default Aster data types that SAS/ACCESS assigns to SAS variable formats during output operations when you use the LIBNAME statement.