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POINTOBS=

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 Description

YES

causes SAS software to produce a compressed data set that may 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, but it does increase CPU usage by roughly 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 observaton 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 roughly 10% when creating a compressed data set and when updating or adding observations to it by specifying POINTOBS=NO.

Details

Note that REUSE=YES takes precedence over POINTOBS=YES. For example:

data test(compress=yes pointobs=yes reuse=yes);

	Data Set Options: REUSE=
	System Options: COMPRESS= REUSE=

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