There are two values that you need to check when you see your job is running out of memory. One is the value specified for REGION, and the other is the value of the SAS system option MEMSIZE. The MEMSIZE OPTION is the total amount of memory that the SAS System will allow the current SAS session (batch or interactive) to use.

If you are running in batch, it is very easy to determine how much memory the step used. There is an IBM IEF374I message that gets printed in the JCL allocation messages at the end of each step. This message will tell you how much VIRT memory is used (the memory below the line) and also how much EXT memory is used (the memory above the line). Add the two values together and if the result is anywhere close to the MEMSIZE value, you need to increase that value at invocation. The JCL would look like this:

   // EXEC SAS,OPTIONS='MEMSIZE=32M'

Also, there is a relationship between what you have coded for REGIONand the value of MEMSIZE. There is a limit on the value that can be coded for MEMSIZE that is honored, based on the value that has been coded for REGION. To see a chart of these values, as well as a more complete explanation of memory issues and SAS, refer to TSNOTE 283.

Because there is no easy method for determining how much memory is used when running interatively, you would need to contact either your system support personnel or try increasing the value of MEMSIZE and see if that will give your job enough memory to run to completion. If it runs further than it did the first time but eventually runs out of memory again, you can try to increase MEMSIZE again and rerun.

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