In SAS Data Integration Studio 3.4, it was possible to disable individual steps within a job by opening a Properties dialog box on a transformation and selecting Do not generate code for this process on the Process tab. While making this selection does turn off code generation for the process, it does not modify the input table or view for the next process in the job flow. Therefore, the step that follows the disabled step still references the output table or view from the disabled step. When you execute the job, it might fail or yield unexpected results, as follows:

• The job fails with an error because the output table or view from the disabled process does not exist.
• The job does not fail, but data from some past execution of the job is processed by the step after the disabled process. Because the data being processed was created at some point in the past, the results might not be what you expect.

In SAS Data Integration Studio 3.4, the only way to completely skip a step in a job flow requires you to edit the generated code and modify the input for processes that follow disabled code.

Beginning with SAS Data Integration Studio 4.2, the concept of disabling code is enhanced. Now when you click a transformation and select Exclude From Run, the process is truly skipped. The excluded process is dimmed to indicate that it is no longer active, and the input table or view for the next process in the flow is automatically changed to reflect the output table or view from the last active step.

This new behavior makes the functionality much more useful. However, it can also cause problems similar to the following if you previously took advantage of the old behavior and you expect it to function the same in the new release of the software. The following list describes some possible problems that you might enccounter, as well as possible solutions:

• If a job contains user-written or custom-generated transformations, these transformations might contain code that references the SYSLAST macro variable in order to obtain the name of the input table or view. In SAS Data Integration Studio 3.4, the value of SYSLAST is not modified when steps are disabled. However, in SAS Data Integration Studio 4.2 and later, SYSLAST is changed to reflect the last active table or view. To make the behavior consistent across software releases, modify the code to reference the _INPUT macro variable instead of the SYSLAST macro variable.
• If you select Do not generate code for this process on the Process tab so you can run only the portion of the job that you are designing and testing, the advanced debugging functions that are introduced in SAS Data Integration Studio 4.21 provide you with complete control over code execution. Instead of disabling steps, you can use the following functions to select where you want execution to begin and end, and how you want it to progress:
  • Run
  • Stop
  • Run From Selected Transformation
  • Run To Selected Transformation
  • Run Selected Transformations
  • Step and Continue

For more information about the new functions in SAS Data Integration Studio 4.21, which are accessible from either the integrated debugger toolbar or from the Debug menu, see the SAS Data Integration Studio documentation or the product Help.

Operating System and Release Information

Product Family	Product	System	Product Release		SAS Release
			Reported	Fixed*	Reported	Fixed*
SAS System	SAS Data Integration Studio	Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server	3.4		9.1 TS1M3 SP4
		Microsoft Windows 2000 Datacenter Server	3.4		9.1 TS1M3 SP4
		Microsoft Windows 2000 Server	3.4		9.1 TS1M3 SP4
		Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional	3.4		9.1 TS1M3 SP4
		Microsoft Windows NT Workstation	3.4		9.1 TS1M3 SP4
		Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition	3.4		9.1 TS1M3 SP4
		Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition	3.4		9.1 TS1M3 SP4
		Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition	3.4		9.1 TS1M3 SP4
		Microsoft Windows Server 2008	3.4		9.1 TS1M3 SP4
		Microsoft Windows XP Professional	3.4		9.1 TS1M3 SP4
		Windows Vista	3.4		9.1 TS1M3 SP4
		Microsoft® Windows® for x64	4.21		9.2 TS2M0

* 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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SAS Data Integration Studio 4.2 and beyond offers enhanced functionality with regard to managing which steps are included during job execution.

Type:	Usage Note
Priority:

Date Modified:	2010-06-16 15:24:54
Date Created:	2009-09-23 14:53:57