Conclusion

ODBC adds another means of bringing data into SAS and SPSS. While not easily mastered, this method can provide you with a great level of flexibility and versatility if you are frequently moving data between database or spreadsheet applications and SAS or SPSS.

ODBC is by no means the exclusive way to import data into these applications but it does provide you with another possible method of accessing files that may not be easily transferred otherwise. In fact in many cases, the standard built-in translation routines that are common in statistical software such as SPSS and SAS are faster and easier to use. But there may well be situations where ODBC can provide you with an added level of versatility and performance.