Running SAS from Jupyter with SASPy

SASPy lets Python talk to a SAS session, so SAS code can run inside Jupyter next to pandas and plotting code. This guide covers a local Windows installation of SAS 9.4. By the end you should be able to start a SAS session from a notebook and run a procedure against a SAS data set.

Prerequisites

Install JupyterLab and SASPy into the Python environment you use for notebooks:

pip install jupyterlab saspy

Configuration

1. Create a personal configuration file. SASPy reads its connection settings from sascfg_personal.py. Start from the example below and change the paths to match your SAS installation. Only the winlocal entry is needed for a local Windows setup; the other entries show the shapes used for remote and Viya connections.

2. Make sure SAS is on the PATH. The SAS executable and its sasext directory need to be discoverable. The configuration below appends them for the Python process.

3. Check the hosts file. Integrated Windows authentication can fail if localhost is not listed explicitly (see Troubleshooting).

Configuration template

# sascfg_personal.py. Change every path to match your installation.
# Reference: https://sassoftware.github.io/saspy/configuration.html

SAS_config_names = ['winlocal']

SAS_config_options = {
    'lock_down': False,
    'verbose': True,
    'prompt': True,
}

SAS_output_options = {
    'output': 'html5',
    'style': 'HTMLBlue',
}

# Local SAS on Windows, using the IOM connection through Java.
cpW  = "C:\\Program Files\\SASHome\\SASDeploymentManager\\9.4\\products\\deploywiz__94532__prt__xx__sp0__1\\deploywiz\\sas.svc.connection.jar"
cpW += ";C:\\Program Files\\SASHome\\SASDeploymentManager\\9.4\\products\\deploywiz__94532__prt__xx__sp0__1\\deploywiz\\log4j.jar"
cpW += ";C:\\Program Files\\SASHome\\SASDeploymentManager\\9.4\\products\\deploywiz__94532__prt__xx__sp0__1\\deploywiz\\sas.security.sspi.jar"
cpW += ";C:\\Program Files\\SASHome\\SASDeploymentManager\\9.4\\products\\deploywiz__94532__prt__xx__sp0__1\\deploywiz\\sas.core.jar"
cpW += ";C:\\ProgramData\\Anaconda3\\Lib\\site-packages\\saspy\\java\\saspyiom.jar"

winlocal = {
    'java': 'C:\\Program Files\\SASHome\\SASPrivateJavaRuntimeEnvironment\\9.4\\jre\\bin\\java.exe',
    'encoding': 'windows-1252',
    'classpath': cpW,
}

# Other connection types, for reference.
ssh = {
    'saspath': '/opt/sasinside/SASHome/SASFoundation/9.4/bin/sas_en',
    'ssh': '/usr/bin/ssh',
    'host': 'remote.linux.host',
    'encoding': 'latin1',
    'options': ['-fullstimer'],
}

winiomIWA = {
    'java': 'java',
    'iomhost': 'windows.iom.host',
    'iomport': 8591,
    'sspi': True,
}

httpsviya = {
    'url': 'https://viya.deployment.com',
    'context': 'Data Mining compute context',
    'authkey': 'viya_user-pw',
    'options': ['fullstimer', 'memsize=1G'],
}

import os
os.environ["PATH"] += ";C:\\Program Files\\SASHome\\SASFoundation\\9.4\\core\\sasext\\sspiauth.dll"
os.environ["PATH"] += ";C:\\Program Files\\SASHome\\SASFoundation\\9.4\\core\\sasext"

The saspyiom.jar path depends on where SASPy is installed. In a virtual environment it sits under that environment’s site-packages\saspy\java folder rather than the Anaconda path shown.

Check that it works

import saspy

sas = saspy.SASsession(cfgname='winlocal')
cars = sas.sasdata('CARS', 'SASHELP')
cars.describe()

If the session starts, describe() prints summary statistics for SASHELP.CARS, and you can submit any SAS code with sas.submit() or the %%SAS cell magic.

Troubleshooting

Error: The application could not log on to the server "localhost:0". Integrated Windows authentication failed.

1. Read the IOM section of the SASPy troubleshooting guide and SAS Usage Note 55227.

2. Open C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts as an administrator and change

   127.0.0.1 view-localhost

   to

   127.0.0.1 localhost view-localhost

3. Restart the Python kernel and create the session again.

First published on my earlier site, andeeli.github.io/posts/Set-Up-saspy/, and revised for this one.