45363 - Sorting a SAS® data set using IBM DFSORT as the host sort utility might cause the last byte of the data set to be replaced with x'00'

Problem Note 45363: Sorting a SAS® data set using IBM DFSORT as the host sort utility might cause the last byte of the data set to be replaced with x'00'

If you sort a SAS data set using IBM DFSORT as the host sort utility, the last byte of the data set might be replaced with x'00'. This occurs under the following conditions:

One of the BY variables extends beyond offset 4096
The same variable is the next-to-last variable
And the last variable in the data set is 1 byte long.

In this scenario, the last variable is replaced with x'00'.

There are a few ways to circumvent this problem.

Reorder the variables within the SAS data set so that the BY variables occur within the first 4096 bytes of the SAS data set.
Ensure that the last variable in the data set is not a 1-byte character variable.
Use the SAS internal sort by setting the SAS system option SORTPGM=SAS before the PROC SORT step.

To determine the order of the variables in the data set, execute the CONTENTS procedure (PROC) on that data set. The following example shows a data set WORK.PROBLEM that could experience this problem if you sorted on the X5 variable:

proc contents data=work.problem position;   
run;

The PROC CONTENTS output shows the length of the observation and the relative position of the variables.

                                                                             
                            The CONTENTS Procedure                           
                                                                             
 Data Set Name        WORK.PROBLEM                 Observations          0   
 Member Type          DATA                         Variables             6   
 Engine               V9                           Indexes               0   
 Created              Friday, January 13,          Observation Length    4201
                      2012 02:42:59 PM                                       
 Last Modified        Friday, January 13,          Deleted Observations  0   
                      2012 02:42:59 PM                                       
 Protection                                        Compressed            NO  
 Data Set Type                                     Sorted                NO  
 Label                                                                       
 Data Representation  MVS_32                                                 
 Encoding             open_ed-1047  Western                                  
                      (OpenEdition)                                          


 .... 

                                                     
    Variables in Creation Order             
                                                                 
                                                   
       #    Variable    Type     Len           
                                               
       1    X1          Char    1000           
       2    X2          Char    1000           
       3    X3          Char    1000           
       4    X4          Char    1000           
       5    X5          Char     200        <--- sort on next-to-last variable   
       6    Y           Char       1        <--- last variable is length 1

Click the Hot Fix tab in this note to access the hot fix for this issue.

Operating System and Release Information

Product Family	Product	System	SAS Release
			Reported	Fixed*
SAS System	Base SAS	Z64
		z/OS		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.

Type:	Problem Note
Priority:	alert

Date Modified:	2012-01-31 09:02:47
Date Created:	2012-01-11 13:16:57

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Problem Note 45363: Sorting a SAS® data set using IBM DFSORT as the host sort utility might cause the last byte of the data set to be replaced with x'00'

Operating System and Release Information