Date:         Thu, 26 Feb 2004 17:01:36 -0500
Reply-To:     Don Stanley <don_stanley@PARADISE.NET.NZ>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Don Stanley <don_stanley@PARADISE.NET.NZ>
Subject:      Re: Confused - position order of variables in a SAS data set
Comments: To: Jimmy Greeley <SASbum@AOL.COM>

These numbers are nothing to do with the PDV. PROC CONTENTS "pos" refers to
the physical storage in the dataset, whilst the PDV is a SAS datastep
entity. What you are seeing I believe is SAS storing all numerics together,
and all characters together in the SAS dataset. Reason-- most likely to
acheive greater compression when the COMPRESS option is used. The position
# I believe is what relates to what you would see PDV wise (and in any var
list in a proc).

Don

On Thu, 26 Feb 2004 16:55:01 -0500, Jimmy Greeley <SASbum@AOL.COM> wrote:

>Hello.  My understanding was that variables were added to the PDV in the
order they were seen by the compiler.  So I would expect the varibles in
this data set (code below - Version 8) to be, in position order: A B C D
E.  Yet when I run a PROC CONTENTS, it looks like the numerics are put in
position order first?  The position # is OK (1-5) but the actually physical
postion (0, 8, 16, etc.) suggests something different.  What am I missing
here?
>
>Thanks, Jimmy
>
>data new;
>input A $ B $ C D E;
>cards;
>abcd x 1 2 3
>efghijk y 4 5 6
>lmn z 7 8 9
>;
>
>Proc contents position;
>run;
>
>-----Alphabetic List of Variables and Attributes-----
>
>#    Variable    Type    Len    Pos
>1    A           Char      8     24
>2    B           Char      8     32
>3    C           Num       8      0
>4    D           Num       8      8
>5    E           Num       8     16
>
>
>-----Variables Ordered by Position-----
>
>#    Variable    Type    Len    Pos
>1    A           Char      8     24
>2    B           Char      8     32
>3    C           Num       8      0
>4    D           Num       8      8
>5    E           Num       8     16