System Options under UNIX

SORTSIZE System Option: UNIX

Specifies the amount of memory available to the SORT procedure.

Default:	depends on your operating environment
Valid in:	configuration file, SAS invocation, OPTIONS statement, SAS System Options window, SASV9_OPTIONS environment variable
Category:	Sort: Procedure options
	System administration: Memory
PROC OPTIONS GROUP=	SORT
	MEMORY
UNIX specifics:	value of MAX
See:	SORTSIZE= System Option in SAS Language Reference: Dictionary

Syntax
Details
See Also

Syntax

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

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

n | nK | nM | nG: specifies the number of bytes in multiples of 1 (bytes); 1,024 (kilobytes); 1,048,576 (megabytes); or 1,073,741,824 (gigabytes). You can specify decimal values for the number of kilobytes, megabytes, or gigabytes. For example, a value of 8 specifies 8 bytes, a value of .782k specifies 801 bytes, and a value of 3m specifies 3,145,728 bytes.
hexX: specifies the amount of memory 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 2dx sets the amount of memory to 45 bytes.
MIN: specifies 0 bytes, which indicates that there is no limit except the limitation specified by the MEMSIZE system option.
MAX: specifies the maximum addressable memory for the operating environment.

Details

The SORT procedure uses the SORTSIZE system option to specify how much virtual memory the procedure can allocate and use without inducing excessive page swapping. The amount of memory that SAS uses for the SORT procedure also depends on the values of the MEMSIZE and REALMEMSIZE system options. By contrast with the SORTSIZE option, the MEMSIZE system option places a limit on the total amount of virtual memory that SAS dynamically allocates at any time. This virtual memory is supported by a combination of real memory and paging space. The operating environment begins paging when the amount of virtual memory that is required exceeds the real memory that is available. To prevent paging and the associated performance problems, the SORTSIZE and the MEMSIZE system options should be set to a subset of real memory. In most cases, you can set SORTSIZE=MAX because this value will limit the amount of memory that is used by the SORT procedure.