The SETOUT data set makes a data set the current output data set.

The arguments to the SETOUT statement are as follows:

SAS-data-set

can be specified with a one-level name (for example, A) or a two-level name (for example, Sasuser.A). For more information about specifying SAS data sets, see the chapter on SAS data sets in SAS Language Reference: Concepts.

name

is the name of a variable to contain the number of observations in the data set.

operand

specifies the observation to be made the current observation.

The SETOUT statement chooses the specified data set from among those data sets already opened for output by the EDIT or CREATE statement. This data set becomes the current output data set for subsequent data management statements. If specified, the NOBS option returns the number of observations currently in the data set in the scalar variable name. The POINT option makes the specified observation the current one.

In the example that follows, the data set WORK.A is made the current output data set and the fifth observation is made the current observation. The number of observations in WORK.A is returned in the variable SIZE.

    setout work.a nobs size point 5;