System Options under z/OS

SORTCUTP= System Option: z/OS

Specifies the number of bytes that SAS sorts. If the number of bytes in the data set is greater than the specified number, the host sort program sorts the entire data set.

Default:	4M
Valid in:	configuration file, SAS invocation, OPTIONS statement, OPTIONS window
Category:	Sort: SORT
PROC OPTIONS GROUP=	SORT
z/OS specifics:	all

Syntax
Details
See Also

Syntax

SORTCUTP=n | nK | nM | nG | MIN | MAX | hexX

n | nK | nM | nG

specifies the value of SORTCUTP= in bytes, kilobytes, megabytes, or gigabytes, respectively.

The value of SORTCUTP= can be specified in multiples of 1 (bytes); 1,024 (kilobytes); 1,048,576 (megabytes); or 1,073,741,824 (gigabytes). You can specify decimal values for the number of kilobytes, megabytes, or gigabytes. For example, a value of 8 specifies 8 bytes, a value of .782k specifies 801 bytes, and a value of 3m specifies 3,145,728 bytes.

MIN

sets SORTCUTP= to 0.

MAX

sets SORTCUTP= to 2,147,483,647 bytes.

hexX

specifies SORTCUTP= as a hexadecimal number of bytes.

Details

The SORTCUTP= option specifies the number of bytes (or kilobytes, megabytes, or gigabytes) above which the external host sort utility is used instead of the SAS sort program, if SORTPGM=BEST is in effect.

The following equation computes the number of bytes to be sorted:

number-of-bytes=((length-of-obs)+(length-of-all-keys))*number-of-obs