Benefits of Metadata-Bound Libraries

Metadata-bound libraries can provide seamless, secure access to SAS data.

Metadata-bound libraries offer more robust protection than do other metadata-based approaches to access control. Because enforcement for a metadata-bound library originates from the physical data, that enforcement occurs regardless of whether an access request from SAS is mediated by metadata (for example, from SAS Web Report Studio) or direct (for example, from a LIBNAME statement that is submitted in SAS Enterprise Guide).

The protection that metadata-bound libraries provide is persistent. Protections for a metadata-bound table apply to any other instances of a physical table with the same name in the same physical library. In other words, permissions that you set in the metadata survive activities that affect the underlying physical table. For example, the protections remain in place after you recreate or replace the underlying physical table.