PROC R is now available

By Jack McGuire, Principal Consultant

We’re pleased to share that PROC R is now part of the SAS Viya platform, giving SAS users a native way to run R code inside SAS programs while keeping governance and auditability in one place.

What is PROC R?

PROC R lets you submit R code from a SAS session, exchange data between SAS data sets and R data frames and bring results back into SAS for further analysis or reporting. It builds on SAS Viya’s external language integration so teams can combine open‑source R with enterprise SAS capabilities.

What does PROC R do?

It helps analysts and data scientists work faster by allowing them to:

• Run R code directly in a SAS program through a simple, contained workflow.
• Exchange data between SAS and R, use R packages, and return results to SAS for downstream use.
• Keep work under SAS Viya administration, logging and security, which is helpful for regulated environments.

How to activate PROC R

• An administrator enables external language integration for R in your SAS Viya deployment. This includes building or making R available, registering the R location for Viya, and enabling the integration.
• Once configured, developers can use PROC R from their SAS compute environment.

Getting started

• Confirm that R is installed and visible to Viya, and that external language integration is enabled.
• If you already use R with Viya via SWAT or other integration points, PROC R adds an in‑SAS option alongside those client‑side workflows.

Considerations and limitations

• Administrator only enablement. End users cannot enable or configure the R integration.
• Environment prerequisites. R must be available in the Viya deployment. Package management, versions and paths should be governed by your admin team.
• Security and governance. External language execution follows Viya’s security model. Review your organisation’s policies for open‑source execution and data movement.
• Data exchange. Data can be moved between SAS and R during a PROC R step. Plan for data types, encodings and any required conversions.

Where PROC R fits

• Teams standardised on SAS can selectively use R capabilities without leaving SAS Studio or changing orchestration.
• R users who already call CAS actions from R with SWAT can now also call R from SAS when that fits the workflow better.

What’s next

SAS continues to extend open‑source language integration across Viya. Keep an eye on the Programming What’s New pages for updates to external language features.

The Katalyze Data team can help you review prerequisites, enable the integration, and co‑design a safe rollout pattern for your developers.

Interested in knowing more?
Reach out to the Katalyze team for a free, no‑obligation consultation.