An SQL procedure join operation might result in an error if the join columns are character data type and the lengths are extremely long.

If the hash join method is chosen by PROC SQL, character column(s) used in the WHERE or ON clause that have very long lengths might result in this error:

ERROR: Index TEMPINDX cannot be created on file WORK.'SASTMP-000000013'n 
because the length of the index value (NNNN bytes) is too large. The index page 
size (currently XXXX) must be large enough to store three index values plus a 
small overhead structure. Reduce the length of the index value or use the 
IBUFSIZE= option to increase the index page size (up to a maximum of 32,767 
bytes).

The value of NNNN above is the length of the column that causes the error. The value of XXXX above is the current data set page size.

     10920 * 3 = 32760   

Increasing the value of the IBUFSIZE system option to 32,760 might prevent the error.

     options ibufsize=32760 ;  

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

Applying the hot fix does not prevent the error above from being written to the SAS Log. Applying the hot fix prevents the SQLRC return code from being set to a non-zero value and allows the query to continue processing using a non-hash join method.

Operating System and Release Information

A fix for this issue for Base SAS 9.21_M3 is available at: