In SAS Micro Analytic
Service, DS2 method input parameters are passed by value. What this
means is that a copy of the value is passed to the method. When passing
character parameters, a copy of the parameter is made to ensure that
the original value is not modified. Making sure that character data
is sized appropriately ensures that less copying occurs.
DS2 method output parameters,
which are specified by the in_out keyword, are passed by reference.
Therefore, no copy is made.
method copy_made(char(256) x);
...
end;
method no_copy(in_out char x);
...
end;