Prior to SAS 9.4, when changing the GENMAX= option to increase the value on a SAS generation data set that has rolled over you will receive the following error message when accessing generations that were created with the previous GENMAX= value.

     ERROR: the version number specified in this file generation 
     is out of range.

The limit for generation version numbers in SAS is 999. After 1000 replacements, SAS rolls over the youngest version number to 000.

Prior to SAS 9.4, in a situation of having a SAS generation data set that has rolled over, you should not modify the GENMAX= option with a larger value, otherwise you will recieve the error noted above. If you require a higher GENMAX= value after a SAS generation data set has rolled over, you will want to save the generation data set you have to date, then start over with a new generation data set and set the GENMAX= option to the desired maximum value.

This problem is fixed in SAS 9.4.

For a related issue see SAS Note: 50087.

Operating System and Release Information

Product Family	Product	System	SAS Release
			Reported	Fixed*
SAS System	Base SAS	z/OS	9.1 TS1M3	9.4 TS1M0
		64-bit Enabled AIX	9.1 TS1M3	9.4 TS1M0
		64-bit Enabled HP-UX	9.1 TS1M3	9.4 TS1M0
		64-bit Enabled Solaris	9.1 TS1M3	9.4 TS1M0
		HP-UX IPF	9.1 TS1M3	9.4 TS1M0
		Linux	9.1 TS1M3	9.4 TS1M0
		OpenVMS Alpha	9.1 TS1M3	9.4 TS1M0
		Tru64 UNIX	9.1 TS1M3	9.4 TS1M0

* For software releases that are not yet generally available, the Fixed Release is the software release in which the problem is planned to be fixed.

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Increasing the GENMAX value on a SAS generation data set that has rolled over can produce an error indicating the version number specified in the file generation group is out of range.

Type:	Problem Note
Priority:	high
Topic:	SAS Reference ==> DATA Step SAS Reference ==> Data Set Options ==> Data Set Options

Date Modified:	2013-07-05 15:18:46
Date Created:	2009-08-13 10:11:33