Date:         Wed, 8 May 2002 10:09:50 -0400
Reply-To:     Gerhard Hellriegel <ghellrieg@T-ONLINE.DE>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Gerhard Hellriegel <ghellrieg@T-ONLINE.DE>
Subject:      Re: stupid question ?

On Wed, 8 May 2002 08:54:13 -0600, John Gerstle <JGerstle@SW.UA.EDU> wrote:

>Fellow SAS-Lers,
>        I interpretted Danielle's question a little differently.  As we
>know, there are some analysis PROCs that will give you error
>messages that the data was not sorted on the CLASS variable (Ie
>GLM, ANOVA, TTEST, etc).  I know when I've been working on a
>program and I forget to sort and get that message, I wish the
>PROC would automatically sort by the CLASS variable.  It's only a
>few seconds of typing to add the PROC SORT before the PROC
>GLM but it can get annoying sometimes.
>        So, given this view of the question, would it be a bad thing for
>V9 to allow some PROCs to automatically sort by the CLASS
>variable?
>John
>> hello
>> has anyone ever proposed to SAS inst. to avoid explicitely sorting
>> datasets in order to perform "by" operations ? (analysis procs, proc
>> transpose, you name the others). it could be done with an internal
>> sorting procedure (yes, i know, in every proc) outputting the data=
>> sas dataset to a temporary one upon which the PROC would perform the
>> usual analysis. sorry if i ask what may seem a stupid question, but
>> since V9 seems to be so improved and "augmentated" i was wondering if
>> such an improvement had already been considered and somehow discarded.
>> cheers daniele
>
>
>John Gerstle, M.S.
>Program Analyst, Sr.
>Applied Gerontology Program
>University of Alabama


Sorted input for CLASS? I've never heared that! Are you sure about that? It
is possible to use BY in that PROCs you mentioned, but be careful: the
behaviour and grouping with BY is different to CLASS! You can even use the
NOTSORTED option, but carefully read the documentation about that! It can
also have some influence to the grouping.

CLASS and BY can have different meanings, if you use special formats for
grouping. You should not use BY unless you have special needs.