How the SAS Data Set Options Property Affects Performance

The SAS Data Set Options property is supported only by the IOM Provider. This property can be used to set a variety of data set options that affects how the SAS Workspace Server accesses a data set. This property is similar to the SAS Page Size property in that the property affects the SAS Workspace Server rather than affecting the client. One performance-related use of this property is to set the number of rows that the SAS Workspace Server retrieves from a data set. Using the OBS= data set option improves performance by directing the SAS Workspace Server to subset data when retrieving data. For more information about SAS data set options, see “SAS Data Set Options” in SAS Language Reference: Dictionary.

The following code shows how to use the SAS data set options with the OBS= data set option:

' obConnection is an open Connection object.
Dim obRecordset As New ADODB.Recordset

' Set the active connection here instead of on the Open method.
obRecordset.ActiveConnection = obConnection

If InStr(LCase(obConnection.Provider), "iomprovider") <> 0 Then
  ' Limit results to 250 rows
  obRecordset.Properties("SAS Data Set Options") = "obs=250"
  obRecordset.Open "seashell.mediate", , adOpenForwardOnly, adLockReadOnly, adCmdTableDirect

End If