I'm not sure what you mean by "a new output". PROC SORT reads an input data set and creates an output data set. If you don't specify OUT=, it overwrites the input data set; if you do specify OUT=, it creates a new data set (or overrides an existing one of the same name). It doesn't produce print output other than a few lines in the log.

Various options are available; see <http://support.sas.com/onlinedoc/913/getDoc/en/proc.hlp/a000057941.htm > for the documentation for PROC SORT in SAS 9.1.3.

Also, what you show was not a statement but several statements. One way to refer to all the statements for a procedure is "proc step". You should tell SAS that you are through with the proc step by placing a run statement at the end:

proc sort data=mixedup out=ordered; by x descending y; run;

Some procedures are terminated by "quit" rather than "run", but PROC SORT is not one of them.

On Jun 7, 2008, at 2:48 pm, Daria wrote:

> hi, there, > in the statement: > > > proc sort data=mixedup > out=ordered; > by x descending y; > > > "out=ordered" creates a new data set or just a new output? > > thanks.