topic Re: What is the content of an index in SAS? in SAS Programming

What is the content of an index in SAS?

GN0001 — Sun, 18 Apr 2021 05:37:18 GMT

Hello team,

What is the content of an index in SAS?

Is it a copy of the values of a variable we create index on or is it a pointer to a observation?

Thanks,

BlueSky

Re: What is the content of an index in SAS?

Kurt_Bremser — Sun, 18 Apr 2021 07:19:40 GMT

@GN0001 wrote:

Hello team,

What is the content of an index in SAS?

Is it a copy of the values of a variable we create index on or is it a pointer to a observation?

Thanks,

BlueSky

Both. It contains records consisting of the index values and the observation pointers, sorted by the index values.

Re: What is the content of an index in SAS?

ChrisNZ — Sun, 18 Apr 2021 08:27:06 GMT

Note that the index values are not searched sequentially: A binary search is performed.

See here for more information about SAS indexes https://documentation.sas.com/doc/en/pgmsascdc/9.4_3.5/lrcon/n06cy7dznbx6gen1q9mat8de6rdq.htm

Also note that SPDE files use much more sophisticated indexes than what the default BASE engine uses.