Using SAS Files |
Advantage to Assigning an Engine |
It is always more efficient to explicitly specify the engine name than to ask SAS to determine which engine to use. To assign an engine name, you can use any of the following:
DMLIBASSIGN command in the command window. If you use the DMLIBASSIGN command the Default engine--that is, BASE--is listed in the Engine field of the New Library dialog box; when you select OK, you automatically select this default engine.
Rules SAS Uses to Determine Engine When No Engine Is Specified |
If you do not assign an engine name, SAS looks at the OpenVMS file types of the files that exist in the specified directory and uses the following rules to determine which engine to assign:
If the directory contains SAS data sets from only one of the native library engines that are supported, then that engine is assigned to the libref.
If the directory contains no SAS data sets, then the default engine is assigned to the libref. The default engine is determined by the value of the ENGINE= system option. By default, the ENGINE= system option is set to V9. However, you can change the value of this system option if you prefer to use a different engine as the default engine for disk libraries. Other valid values are V8, V6, and CONCUR. For more information about the ENGINE= system option, see ENGINE= System Option: OpenVMS and SAS Language Reference: Dictionary.
A directory that contains SAS data sets from more than one engine is called a mixed-mode library. SAS assigns the default engine to mixed-mode libraries.
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