sas-score-read-strategy

Read Table Strategy

Mandatory two-step sequence — never skip or reorder

Step 1 and Step 2 are required for every read request. Step 2 must never run before Step 1 succeeds.

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Step 1 — Verify the table exists and resolve its server (REQUIRED)

GATE:

Do not check for the existence of the library separately. Follow the workflow below. The sas-score-find-table tool will check for the existence of the table in the specified library and server, which implicitly verifies the library as well.

Workflow to read a table

Step 1 — Verify the table exists and resolve its server (REQUIRED)

1. Call sas-score-find-table({ lib, name: table, server: "cas" })
   • ✅ Found → confirmed lib = lib as given, confirmed server = "cas" → go to Step 2
   • ❌ Not found → call sas-score-find-table({ lib: lib.toUpperCase(), name: table, server: "sas" })
     • ✅ Found → confirmed lib = uppercased lib, confirmed server = "sas" → go to Step 2
     • ❌ Not found in either → stop. Tell the user the table was not found.

Step 2 — Read the table

Use the confirmed lib and server from Step 1. Never guess or default the server.

Use sas-score-read-table for all row reads, including filtered reads with a WHERE clause. Use sas-score-sas-query only when the request requires SQL aggregation (COUNT, SUM, AVG, MIN, MAX), GROUP BY, JOIN, or computed columns. A WHERE clause alone is not a reason to use sas-query.

Read Table (sas-score-read-table)

When: raw rows, filtered rows, browsing — anything that is not an aggregation or join.

Parsing row count from user input:

User says	start	limit
"first N rows/records"	1	N
"top N rows"	1	N
"N rows" / "N records"	1	N
"rows N to M"	N	M−N+1
"starting from row N"	N	10
(not specified)	1	10

"first" always means start at row 1 and return N rows. It is never a row offset.

Dotted format: "lib.table" → lib: "lib", table: "table" (split on first dot).