topic Re: How to set MEMSIZE during Invocation in Windows 10 in SAS Data Management

How to set MEMSIZE during Invocation in Windows 10

jdadams — Thu, 21 Feb 2019 20:35:12 GMT

Hi All:

I'm new at using SAS 9.4 for Windows 10 and I'm confused about how to set MEMSIZE during invocation. I've read the documentation and I understand that you have to provide "<path> sas.exe -memsize 6G" to set memory at 6G. But I've no idea how invocation is done or where it is done. I know that you invoke before SAS launches, but that's about it.

Thanks for your help & forgive my ignorance (though a video example showing invocation would be nice.)

-J Adams

Re: How to set MEMSIZE during Invocation in Windows 10

PeterClemmensen — Thu, 21 Feb 2019 21:10:50 GMT

Specify -MEMSIZE 6G in your configuration file. Probably located at

c:\Program Files\SASHome\SASFoundation\9.4\nls\en\

Re: How to set MEMSIZE during Invocation in Windows 10

jdadams — Thu, 21 Feb 2019 21:43:57 GMT

Thanks for your reply.

But what if I do not want to change the config file 'permanently' but instead want to reset MEMSIZE (and also SORTSIZE) for that one run? I can do as you suggest, but changing the parameters after sas.exe is often suggested as an alternative. But where?

Thank you again.

Re: How to set MEMSIZE during Invocation in Windows 10

SASKiwi — Thu, 21 Feb 2019 21:49:32 GMT

You can do it when starting SAS as in the command line have in your original post. You can do this from the Windows 10 Run window or the Command window.

Re: How to set MEMSIZE during Invocation in Windows 10

jdadams — Thu, 21 Feb 2019 22:28:55 GMT

Brilliant, SASKiwi !!

When I enter: C:\Program Files\SASHome\SASFoundation\9.4\sas.exe -memsize 20G -sortsize 18G

into the Windows Run Window box at lower left (AKA the "Type here to search" box for dummies) and hit enter, it does change the memsize and sortsize parameters. I verify this by running in SAS, which is invoked upon issuing the above statement, by executing:

proc options;

run;

The results window shows that memsize and sortsize have increased from their 2G and 1G default values to 20G and 18G respectively, as requested.

Thanks and equally ebullient thanks to draycut for a suggestion that is just as good for permanent changes in these parameters. I hope that this write up will help other new users who need more space for their computing but are not clear on how to proceed. Thanks again to you both.