Date:         Thu, 20 Mar 2008 11:57:20 -0500
Reply-To:     "data _null_," <datanull@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         "data _null_," <datanull@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Sort alphabetically
Comments: To: lil x <lilx@inode.at>
In-Reply-To:  <47E290B1.7030305@inode.at>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

On Thu, Mar 20, 2008 at 11:28 AM, lil x <lilx@inode.at> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> also FORMAT instead of RETAIN works. Is that true or is RETAIN
> recommended? What are the differences between the two statements used
> for sorting variable names?

This limited test seems to indicate that using FORMAT or RETAIN
produce the same result.  I believe that using RETAIN is the more
accepted method, in that I have seen RETAIN used more often than
FORMAT for this purpose.

dm 'clear log; clear output;';
data test;
   x = 1;
   c = 'C';
   a = 2;
   format x z3. a 4.;
   run;
proc contents varnum;
   run;
data test2;
   format a C x;
   set test;
   run;
proc contents varnum;
   run;
data test3;
   retain a C x;
   set test;
   run;
proc contents varnum;
   run;