V6-SYS.SYS-3842 Maximum number of variables in a SAS data set

In Release 6.07 of the SAS System, a DATA step that attempts to create more than 32,767 variables will receive the following message:

    ERROR: TOO MANY VARIABLES DEFINED FOR FILE libref.member.  THIS FILE
           MAY NOT HAVE MORE THAN 32767 VARIABLES.

SAS is capable of processing more than 32,767 variables in a DATA _NULL_step, but current library architecture cannot support more than that number on an output data set.

At TS Level 304 of Release 6.07 and beyond, sites can circumvent this problem by restricting the number of variables in the output data set(s) to 32,767 using a DROP/KEEP statement, or DROP=/KEEP= data set option.

The restriction on the maximum number of variables in an output data setmay be removed in a future release of the SAS System.

System	Release Reported	Release Fixed
VM/ESA (CMS)	6.07 TS301	6.07 TS304
OS/390 (MVS)	6.07 TS301	6.07 TS304
OpenVMS VAX	6.07 TS301	6.07 TS304

No Fixes Available