KEY

KEY

Specifies a key field that governs the order that records are read.

Optional statement

Applies to: access descriptor or view descriptor

Syntax
Details

Syntax

KEY<=> <">Datacom-short-name<">;

Details

The KEY statement specifies the CA-DATACOM/DB short name for a Default Key in the CA-DATACOM/DB table. The Default Key value governs the order in which records are read. The Default Key is an optional key that defaults to the Native Key. The Native Key governs how records are stored and maintained.

You can specify another key as the Default Key if you want the records processed in a certain order but you do not want to specify a SORT clause to achieve that result. You can also specify a Default Key with the DDBKEY= data set option when you execute a SAS procedure.

If the CA-DATACOM/DB short name contains special characters or national characters, enclose the name in quotes.

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	Optional statement
Applies to:	access descriptor or view descriptor