SAS Component Language Dictionary

ASORT

Sorts an array

Category:

Array

Syntax
Details
Example

Syntax

rc=ASORT(array<,order><,elements>);

rc

contains the return code for the operation:

0	successful
0	not successful

Type: Numeric

array

is an SCL array that was declared in an ARRAY statement.

Type: Character

order

specifies the order for the sort:

'A'	ascending order (the default)
'D'	descending order

Type: Character

elements

is the number of elements to sort.

Type: Numeric

Details

By default, the array is sorted in ascending order. You can use the optional order argument to specify either ascending or descending order.

By default, the entire array is sorted. You can use the optional elements argument to restrict sorting to the specified number of elements (starting from the beginning of the array).

If the value of the elements argument is greater than the total number of array elements, the program halts execution and sends an error message to the log.

Example

Sort the first five items of array VALUES in ascending order:

array values[8] val1-val8 (3,5,2,1,6,8,7,4);

if (asort(values,'d',5)) then _msg_=sysmsg();
else do;
   _msg_='Sort was successful';
   do i=1 to dim(values);
      put values{i}=;
   end;
end;

This produces the following output:

values[ 1 ]=6
values[ 2 ]=5
values[ 3 ]=3
values[ 4 ]=2
values[ 5 ]=1
values[ 6 ]=8
values[ 7 ]=7
values[ 8 ]=4

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