System Options under UNIX

SORTCUT System Option: UNIX

Specifies the number of observations that SAS sorts; if the number of observations in the data set is greater than the specified number, the host sort program sorts the remaining observations.

Default:	0
Valid in:	configuration file, SAS invocation, OPTIONS statement, SASV9_OPTIONS environment variable
Category:	Sort: Procedure options
PROC OPTIONS GROUP=	SORT
UNIX specifics:	all

Syntax
Details
See Also

Syntax

-SORTCUT n | nK | nM | nG | hexX | MIN | MAX

SORTCUT=n | nK | nM | nG | hexX | MIN | MAX

n | nK | nM | nG: specifies the number of observations in multiples of 1 (n); 1,024 (nK); 1,048,576 (nM); or 1,073,741,824 (nG). You can specify decimal values for the number of kilobytes, megabytes, or gigabytes. For example, a value of 800 specifies 800 observations, a value of .782k specifies 801 observations, and a value of 3m specifies 3,145,728 observations.
hexX: specifies the number of observations as a hexadecimal value. You must specify the value beginning with a number (0-9), followed by hexadecimal characters (0-9, A-F), and then followed by an X. For example, the value 2ffx specifies 767 observations.
MIN: specifies 0 observations.
MAX: specifies 9,007,199,254,740,992 observations.

Details

When you specify SORTPGM=BEST, SAS uses the value of the SORTCUT and SORTCUTP options to determine whether to use the host sort or the SAS sort. If the number of observations in the data set is greater than the number that you specify with SORTCUT, the host sort will be used. If both SORTCUT and SORTCUTP are either not defined or are set to 0, the SAS sort is used. If you specify both options and either condition is true, SAS chooses the host sort.