POINTOBS= Data Set Option

Specifies whether SAS creates compressed data sets whose observations can be randomly accessed or sequentially accessed.

Valid in: DATA step and PROC steps
Category: Observation Control
Restriction: POINTOBS= is effective only when creating a compressed data set. Otherwise, it is ignored.
Syntax
Syntax Description
Details
See Also

Syntax

POINTOBS=YES | NO

Syntax Description

YES

causes SAS software to produce a compressed data set that might be randomly accessed by observation number. This is the default.

Here are examples of accessing data directly by observation number:
  • through the POINT= option of the MODIFY and SET statements in the DATA step
  • through a specific observation number with PROC FSEDIT
    Tip
    Specifying POINTOBS=YES does not affect the efficiency of retrieving information from a data set. It does increase CPU usage by approximately 10% when creating a compressed data set and when updating or adding information to it.

NO

suppresses the ability to randomly access observations in a compressed data set by observation number.

Tip
If you do not need to access data by observation number in a compressed data set, then you can improve performance by approximately 10% when you specify POINTOBS=NO in these situations:
  • when you create a compressed data set
  • when you update or add observations to a compressed data set

Details

REUSE=YES takes precedence over POINTOBS=YES. For example: 
data test(compress=yes pointobs=yes reuse=yes);
This data set option results in a data set that has POINTOBS=NO. Because POINTOBS=YES is the default when you use compression, REUSE=YES causes POINTOBS= to change to NO.

See Also

Data Set Options:
COMPRESS= Data Set Option
REUSE= Data Set Option
System Options:
COMPRESS= System Option in SAS System Options: Reference
REUSE= System Option in SAS System Options: Reference
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