Database Source Node

The Database source node can be used to import data from a variety of other packages using ODBC (Open Database Connectivity), including Microsoft SQL Server, DB2, Oracle, and others.

To read or write to a database, you must have an ODBC data source installed and configured for the relevant database, with read or write permissions as needed. The IBM® SPSS® Data Access Pack includes a set of ODBC drivers that can be used for this purpose, and these drivers are available from the download site. If you have questions about creating or setting permissions for ODBC data sources, contact your database administrator.

Supported ODBC Drivers

For the latest information on which databases and ODBC drivers are supported and tested for use with IBM SPSS Modeler 18, see the product compatibility matrices on the corporate Support site (http://www.ibm.com/support).

Where to Install Drivers

Note: ODBC drivers must be installed and configured on each computer where processing may occur.
  • If you are running IBM SPSS Modeler in local (standalone) mode, the drivers must be installed on the local computer.
  • If you are running IBM SPSS Modeler in distributed mode against a remote IBM SPSS Modeler Server, the ODBC drivers need to be installed on the computer where IBM SPSS Modeler Server is installed. For IBM SPSS Modeler Server on UNIX systems, see also "Configuring ODBC drivers on UNIX systems" later in this section.
  • If you need to access the same data sources from both IBM SPSS Modeler and IBM SPSS Modeler Server, the ODBC drivers must be installed on both computers.
  • If you are running IBM SPSS Modeler over Terminal Services, the ODBC drivers need to be installed on the Terminal Services server on which you have IBM SPSS Modeler installed.

Access data from a database

To access data from a database, complete the following steps.

  • Install an ODBC driver and configure a data source to the database you want to use.
  • In the Database node dialog box, connect to a database using Table mode or SQL Query mode.
  • Select a table from the database.
  • Using the tabs in the Database node dialog box, you can alter usage types and filter data fields.

More details on the preceding steps are given in the related documentation topics.

Note: If you call database Stored Procedures (SPs) from SPSS Modeler you might see a single output field returned named RowsAffected rather than the expected output of the SP. This occurs when ODBC does not return sufficient information to be able to determine the output datamodel of the SP. SPSS Modeler has only limited support for SPs that return output and it is suggested that instead of using SPs you should extract the SELECT from the SP and use either of the following actions.
  • Create a view based on the SELECT and choose the view in the Database source node
  • Use the SELECT directly in the Database source node.