SAS Data Set Options

REUSE= Data Set Option

Specifies whether new observations can be written to freed space in compressed SAS data sets.

Valid in:	DATA step and PROC steps
Category:	Data Set Control
Restriction:	Use with output data sets only.

Syntax
Syntax Description
Details
Comparisons
See Also

does not track and reuse space in compressed data sets. New observations are appended to the existing data set. Specifying the NO argument results in less efficient data storage if you delete or update many observations in the SAS data set.

YES

tracks and reuses space in compressed SAS data sets. New observations are inserted in the space that is freed when other observations are updated or deleted.

If you plan to use procedures that add observations to the end of SAS data sets (for example, the APPEND and FSEDIT procedures) with compressed data sets, use the REUSE=NO argument. REUSE=YES causes new observations to be added wherever there is space in the file, not necessarily at the end of the file.

Details

By default, new observations are appended to existing compressed data sets. If you want to track and reuse free space by deleting or updating other observations, use the REUSE= data set option when you create a compressed SAS data set.

REUSE= has meaning only when you are creating new data sets with the COMPRESS=YES data set option or system option. Using the REUSE= data set option when you are accessing an existing SAS data set has no effect.

Comparisons

The REUSE= data set option overrides the REUSE= system option.

REUSE=YES takes precedence over POINTOBS=YES. For example, the following statement results in a data set that has POINTOBS=NO:

data test(compress=yes pointobs=yes reuse=yes);

Because POINTOBS=YES is the default when you use compression, REUSE=YES causes POINTOBS= to change to NO.

REUSE= Data Set Option

Syntax

Syntax Description