SORTDUP= System Option

Specifies whether the SORT procedure removes duplicate variables based on all variables in a data set or the variables that remain after the DROP or KEEP data set options have been applied.
Valid in: Configuration file, SAS invocation, OPTIONS statement, SAS System Options window
Category: Sort: Procedure options
PROC OPTIONS GROUP= SORT
Note: This option can be restricted by a site administrator. For more information, see Restricted Options.
Syntax
Details
See Also

Syntax

SORTDUP=PHYSICAL | LOGICAL

Syntax Description

PHYSICAL
removes duplicates based on all the variables that are present in the data set. This is the default.
LOGICAL
removes duplicates based on only the variables remaining after the DROP= and KEEP= data set options are processed.

Details

The SORTDUP= option specifies what variables to sort to remove duplicate observations when the SORT procedure NODUPRECS option is specified.
When SORTDUP= is set to LOGICAL and NODUPRECS is specified in the SORT procedure, duplicate observations are removed based on the variables that remain after a DROP or KEEP operation on the input data set. Setting SORTDUP=LOGICAL increases the number of duplicate observations that are removed because it eliminates variables before observations are compared. Setting SORTDUP=LOGICAL might improve performance.
When SORTDUP= is set to PHYSICAL and NODUPRECS is specified in the SORT procedure, duplicate observations are removed based on all of the variables in the input data set.

See Also

Procedures:
SORT Procedure in Base SAS Procedures Guide
Copyright © SAS Institute Inc. All rights reserved.