A SAS
© engine is an essential component that manages interaction with data, whether it's native SAS
© files or data from external applications. SAS
©'s multi-engine architecture applies an abstraction layer, allowing SAS
© to process external data as if it were SAS
© datasets or SAS
© libraries. An engine is specified via a library assignment (
libref) or the ENGINE system option, which can be configured through
SAS© Environment Manager to set the default engine.