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The DATASOURCE Procedure |
The default lengths of character variables are defined as the minimum number of characters that can hold the longest possible value.
For some file types, the LENGTH statement also controls the amount of memory used to store values of numeric variables while processing the input data file. Thus, specifying LENGTH values smaller than the default will reduce both the disk space taken up by the output data sets and the amount of memory used by the PROC DATASOURCE step, at the cost of reduced precision of output data values.
Any later length specification for a variable, using either the LENGTH statement or the LENGTH= option in the ATTRIBUTE statement, always overrides the previous one.
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