POINTOBS= Data Set Option

Specifies whether SAS creates compressed data sets whose observations can be randomly accessed or sequentially accessed.
Valid in: DATA step and PROC steps
Category: Observation Control
Restriction: POINTOBS= is effective only when creating a compressed data set. Otherwise it is ignored.

Syntax

POINTOBS=YES | NO

Syntax Description

YES
causes SAS software to produce a compressed data set that might be randomly accessed by observation number. This is the default.
Examples of accessing data directly by observation number are:
  • the POINT= option of the MODIFY and SET statements in the DATA step
  • going directly to a specific observation number with PROC FSEDIT.
    Tip
    Specifying POINTOBS=YES does not affect the efficiency of retrieving information from a data set. It does increase CPU usage by approximately 10% when creating a compressed data set and when updating or adding information to it.
NO
suppresses the ability to randomly access observations in a compressed data set by observation number.
Tip
Specifying POINTOBS=NO is desirable for applications where the ability to point directly to an observation by number within a compressed data set is not important. If you do not need to access data by observation number, then you can improve performance by approximately 10% by specifying POINTOBS=NO:
  • when creating a compressed data set
  • when updating or adding observations to it

Details

Note that REUSE=YES takes precedence over POINTOBS=YES. For example:
data test(compress=yes pointobs=yes reuse=yes);
results in a data set that has POINTOBS=NO. Because POINTOBS=YES is the default when you use compression, REUSE=YES causes POINTOBS= to change to NO.

See Also

System Options:
COMPRESS= System Option in SAS System Options: Reference
REUSE= System Option in SAS System Options: Reference