topic Proc SQL reading Oracle tables in Version 9.1.3 - not consistent results in SAS Procedures

Proc SQL reading Oracle tables in Version 9.1.3 - not consistent results

LeeDavis — Wed, 20 Sep 2017 19:11:29 GMT

I am reading Oracle tables via Proc SQL in SAS version 9.1.3. I have successfully used SAS to read the Oracle tables for over 10 years. The past couple of months I will run the same program, back-to-back, and get a different number of observations as a result. I do not know if this is an Oracle database problem, or if perhaps my SAS version is unreliable or too old?

I sometimes get values for a field that do not exist. For example: values for user_status should be 'Active - Promotion', 'Active - New Hire', and I will get values like 'motionActive - Pro' which is not a valid value for user_status.

Has anyone encountered problems such as these?

Thanks in advance!

Re: Proc SQL reading Oracle tables in Version 9.1.3 - not consistent results

Reeza — Wed, 20 Sep 2017 19:19:23 GMT

It's difficult to make values up.

Have you confirmed these values do not exist in the Oracle Tables? Has your Oracle DB or the ODBC engine changed?

Are you using a specific driver or ODBC?

SAS 9.1.3 is ancient...and that is the technical term, so if you have any ability to update I would highly highly recommend it.

https://blogs.sas.com/content/iml/2013/08/02/how-old-is-your-version-of-sas-release-dates-for-sas-software.html

Re: Proc SQL reading Oracle tables in Version 9.1.3 - not consistent results

ballardw — Wed, 20 Sep 2017 20:20:17 GMT

I wonder if you are seeing some artifact of timing. Perhaps the documentation says you only have those two values as the permanent stored value but if a new record is being created, or perhaps an existing record is being editted somewhere, perhaps that is a temporary holding value until it is committed to the data base and you are reading it before the committal completes.

A pure WAG on my part.