Date:         Mon, 26 Jan 2009 20:58:29 -0800
Reply-To:     Jack Hamilton <jfh@STANFORDALUMNI.ORG>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Jack Hamilton <jfh@STANFORDALUMNI.ORG>
Subject:      Re: Reduce SAS dataset size
Comments: To: "SUBSCRIBE SAS-L Joe H. Smith" <peesari.mahesh@GMAIL.COM>
In-Reply-To:  <200901270422.n0QLjOVj014542@malibu.cc.uga.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes

Is your name Mahesh Peesari, or is it Joe H. Smith?

You can reduce the size of your data set by reducing the number of
observations, reducing the number of variables, reducing the size of
the variables, or some combination of the three.  Reducing the size of
variables may be the easiest - if you know, for example, that a
particular variable's values will always be between 1 and 100, you
don't need to store it in an 8 byte variable - 4 bytes will suffice,
and you've chopped your storage requirements for that variable in
half.  A gigabyte here, a gigabyte there, pretty soon you're talking
about real space savings.

Reducing the length of a character variables can be tricker,
especially when it contains free text.  One approach is to reduce all
the values to codes (either character or numeric).  If you have lots
of repeated values, you can save a lot of space, at the expense of
making your program more complicated and your data more difficult to
use.

There are many SUGI and other user group papers on program and storage
efficiency.  Look around at <http://www.lexjansen.com/sugi/index.htm>;
try searching for "efficiency".  Others may have particular papers to
suggest.


--
Jack Hamilton
jfh@alumni.stanford.org
Videtis illam spirare libertatis auram





On Jan 26, 2009, at 8:22 pm, SUBSCRIBE SAS-L Joe H. Smith wrote:

> Hi all,
>
>  How can i reduce my  sas data set size other than using Compress
> option,
>    please help me out ....
>
>
> Thanks & Regards
>   mahesh