Improving Performance

The SAS System offers tools to control the use of memory and other computer resources. Most SAS applications will run efficiently in your operating environment without using these features. However, if you develop applications under the following circumstances, you may want to experiment with tuning performance:

You work with large data sets.
You create production jobs that run repeatedly.
You are responsible for establishing performance guidelines for a data center.
You do interactive queries on large SAS data sets using SAS/FSP software.

The following table summarizes tools available to affect performance, and specifies where you can find documentation on the tools:

Performance Tools Summary
For information about ... See ...

the time required to run your application STIMER or FULLSTIMER system options in the SAS documentation for your operating environment.

data set characteristics CONTENTS statement for the DATASETS procedure in SAS Procedures Guide, the ATTRC and ATTRN functions in SAS Language Reference: Dictionary, and the DICTIONARY tables component for the SQL procedure in SAS Procedures Guide.

setting buffer size (page size) BUFSIZE= data set option or system option in SAS Language Reference: Dictionary.

setting the number of page buffers BUFNO= data set option or system option in SAS Language Reference: Dictionary.

compressing SAS data sets COMPRESS= data set option or system option and the REUSE= data set option in SAS Language Reference: Dictionary.

indexing SAS data sets SAS Indexes

programming more efficiently SAS Programming Tips: A Guide to Efficient SAS Processing

programming with views SAS Data Views

***Performance Tools Summary***
For information about ...	See ...
the time required to run your application	STIMER or FULLSTIMER system options in the SAS documentation for your operating environment.
data set characteristics	CONTENTS statement for the DATASETS procedure in SAS Procedures Guide, the ATTRC and ATTRN functions in SAS Language Reference: Dictionary, and the DICTIONARY tables component for the SQL procedure in SAS Procedures Guide.
setting buffer size (page size)	BUFSIZE= data set option or system option in SAS Language Reference: Dictionary.
setting the number of page buffers	BUFNO= data set option or system option in SAS Language Reference: Dictionary.
compressing SAS data sets	COMPRESS= data set option or system option and the REUSE= data set option in SAS Language Reference: Dictionary.
indexing SAS data sets	SAS Indexes
programming more efficiently	SAS Programming Tips: A Guide to Efficient SAS Processing
programming with views	SAS Data Views

In addition, see the SAS documentation for your operating environment.

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