STARTOBS= LIBNAME Statement Option

Specifies the starting observation number in a user-defined range of observations to be processed.

Default:	The first observation in the data set
Restrictions:	Use STARTOBS= with input data sets only
Restrictions:	Cannot be used with the OBS= system or data set option or with the FIRSTOBS= system or data set option
Interactions:	STARTOBS= Data Set Option
	ENDOBS= LIBNAME Statement Option
	ENDOBS= Data Set Option
Engine:	SPD Engine only

Syntax

Syntax

STARTOBS=n

Required Argument

n

is the number of the starting observation.

Details

By default, the SPD Engine processes all of the observations in the entire data set unless you specify a range of observations with the STARTOBS= and ENDOBS= options. If the ENDOBS= option is used without the STARTOBS= option, the implied value of STARTOBS= is 1. When both options are used together, the value of STARTOBS= must be less than the value of ENDOBS=.

In contrast to the default Base SAS engine option FIRSTOBS=, the STARTOBS= and ENDOBS= SPD Engine options can be used in the LIBNAME statement.

Note: FIRSTOBS= default Base SAS engine option is not supported by the SPD Engine. The OBS= system option and the OBS= data set option cannot be used with STARTOBS= or ENDOBS= data set or LIBNAME options.

(See SPD Engine Data Set Options for information about using the STARTOBS= data set option in WHERE processing.)

Comparisons

The STARTOBS= data set option overrides the STARTOBS= LIBNAME statement option.

Example: Using the WHERE Expression

The following example prints the five observations that were qualified by the WHERE expression (age >13 in PROC PRINT). The five observations are out of the six observations that were processed, starting with the second observation in the data set:

libname growth spde 'SAS-library' startobs=2;
data growth.teens;
   input Name $ Sex $ Age Height Weight;
datalines;
Alfred M 14 69.0 112.5
Carol F 14 62.8 102.5
James M 13 57.3 83.0
Janet F 15 62.5 112.5
Judy F 14 64.3 90.0
Philip M 16 72.0 150.0
William M 15 66.5 112.0
;
proc print data=growth.teens;
   where age >13;
run;

The output is shown:

STARTOBS=

output starting at the second observation