Chapter 27
SAS Data Sets
Definition of a SAS Data Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 601
Descriptor Information for a SAS Data Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 602
Data Set Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 604
Where to Use Data Set Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 604
How and When SAS Data Set Names Are Assigned . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 604
Parts of a Data Set Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 604
Two-level SAS Data Set Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 605
One-level SAS Data Set Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 605
Data Set Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 606
Special SAS Data Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 607
Null Data Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 607
Default Data Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 607
Automatic Naming Convention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 607
Sorted Data Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 608
The Sort Indicator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 608
How SAS Uses the Sort Indicator to Improve Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 613
Validating That a Data Set Is Sorted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 613
Tools for Managing Data Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 614
Viewing and Editing SAS Data Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 614
Definition of a SAS Data Set
A SAS data set is a SAS file stored in a SAS library that SAS creates and processes. A
SAS data set contains data values that are organized as a table of observations (rows)
and variables (columns) that can be processed by SAS software. A SAS data set also
contains descriptor information such as the data types and lengths of the variables, as
well as which engine was used to create the data.
A SAS data set can be one of the following:
SAS data file
contains both the data and the descriptor information. SAS data files have a member
type of DATA. For specific information, see Chapter 28, “SAS Data Files,” on page
615.
601
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