System Options under z/OS

SORTPGM= System Option: z/OS

Specifies which sort utility SAS uses, the SAS sort utility or the host sort utility.

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

Syntax

SORTPGM=utility | BEST | HOST | SAS

utility: can be any valid operating environment name that specifies the name of an accessible utility, except one of the three keywords for this option.
BEST: specifies a choice of sort utility of the data being sorted. The choice is made based on a comparison of the value of the SORTCUTP= option and a calculation of the number of bytes being sorted. If the number of bytes exceeds the value of SORTCUTP=, then the host sort utility is used. Otherwise, the SAS sort utility is used.
HOST: specifies to use the host sort utility.
SAS: specifies to the SAS sort utility.

The host sort utility might be more suitable than the sort utility supplied by SAS for SAS data sets that contain a large number of observations.

The name of the host sort utility is also given by the SORTNAME= system option.