When loading data into CAS using PROC CASUTIL, you have two choices on how the table can be loaded:  session-scope or global-scope.  This is controlled by the PROMOTE option in the PROC CASUTIL statement.

Session-scope loaded

proc casutil;
                                load casdata="model_table.sas7bdat" incaslib="ryloll" 
                                outcaslib="otcaslib" casout="model_table”;
run;

Global-scope loaded

proc casutil;
                                load casdata="model_table.sas7bdat" incaslib="ryloll" 
                                outcaslib="otcaslib" casout="model_table" promote;
run;

Remember session-scope tables can only be seen by a single CAS session and are dropped from CAS when that session is terminated, while global-scope tables can be seen publicly and will not be dropped when the CAS session is terminated.

But what happens if I want to create a new table for modeling by partitioning an existing table and adding a new partition column? Will the new table be session-scoped or global-scoped? To find out, I have a global-scoped table called MODEL_TABLE that I want to partition based on my response variable Event. I will use PROC PARTITION and call my new table MODEL_TABLE_PARTITIONED.

proc partition data=OTCASLIB.MODEL_TABLE partind samppct=30;
	by Event;
	output out=OTCASLIB.model_table_partitioned;
run;

After I created my new table, I executed the following code to determine its scope. Notice that the Promoted Table value is set to No on my new table MODEL_TABLE_PARTITIONED which means it’s session-scoped.

proc casutil;
     list tables incaslib="otcaslib";
run;

How can I promote my table to global-scoped?  Because PROC PARTITION doesn’t provide me with an option to promote my table to global-scope, I need to execute the following PROC CASUTIL code to promote my table to global-scope.

proc casutil;
     promote casdata="MODEL_TABLE_PARTITIONED"
     Incaslib="OTCASLIB" Outcaslib="OTCASLIB" CASOUT="MODEL_TABLE_PARTITIONED";
run;

I know what you’re thinking.  Why do I have to execute a PROC CASUTIL every time I need my output to be seen publicly in CAS?  That’s not efficient.  There has to be a better way!

Well there is, by using CAS Actions.  Remember, when working with CAS in SAS Viya, SAS PROCs are converted to CAS Actions and CAS Actions are at a more granular level, providing more options and parameters to work with.

How do I figure out what CAS Action syntax was used when I execute a SAS PROC?  Using the PROC PARTITION example from earlier, I can execute the following code after my PROC PARTITION completes to see the CAS Action syntax that was previously executed.

proc cas;
     history;
run;

This command will return a lot of output, but if I look for lines that start with the word “action,” I can find the CAS Actions that were executed.  In the output, I can see the following CAS action was executed for PROC PARTITION:

action sampling.stratified / table={name='MODEL_TABLE', caslib='OTCASLIB', groupBy={{name='Event'}}}, samppct=30, partind=true, output={casOut={name='MODEL_TABLE_PARTITIONED', caslib='OTCASLIB', replace=true}, copyVars='ALL'};

To partition my MODEL_TABLE using a CAS Action, I would execute the following code.

proc cas;
  sampling.stratified / 
    table={name='MODEL_TABLE', caslib='OTCASLIB', groupBy={name='Event'}}, 
    samppct=30, 
    partind=true, 
    output={casOut={name='embu_partitioned', caslib='OTCASLIB'}, copyVars='ALL'};
run;

If I look up sampling.stratified syntax in the SAS Viya Action Programming Guide, I can see that the output parameter has the promote option available and its default setting is promote=false.  So, to partition my table and promote it to global-scope in a single set of code, I would write the following:

proc cas;
  sampling.stratified / 
    table={name='MODEL_TABLE', caslib='OTCASLIB', groupBy={name='Event'}}, 
    samppct=30, 
    partind=true, 
    output={casOut={name='embu_partitioned', caslib='OTCASLIB', promote=true}, copyVars='ALL'};
run;

So, what did we learn from this exercise?  We learned that when we create a table in CAS from a SAS PROC, the default scope will be session and to change the scope to global we would need to promote it through a PROC CASUTIL statement.  We also learned how to see the CAS Actions that were executed by SAS PROCs and how we can write code in CAS Action form to give us more control.

I hope this exercise helps you when working with CAS.

Thanks.