topic Re: proc DS2: BASE driver, creation of a INTEGER column has been requested in SAS Programming

proc DS2: BASE driver, creation of a INTEGER column has been requested

Alkibiades — Fri, 25 Mar 2016 05:36:47 GMT

First things first. The SAS version of our company: 9.04.01M3P062415

Whenever using non double variables in proc ds2 variables like integer or dates, i.e.:

proc ds2 scond = error;
	data test (overwrite=yes);
		declare integer a b d;

		method run();
                        a = 3;
                        b = 4;
			d = a + b;
			output;
		end;
	enddata;
run;
quit;

I get the following Note in my log:

NOTE: BASE driver, creation of a INTEGER column has been requested, but is not supported by the BASE driver. A DOUBLE PRECISION 
      column has been created instead.

When solely using double variables the proc ds2 runs smoothly.

Is there anything I can do to prevent this note? Does it have and impact on the performance or should I just ignore it?

I'd be thankful for any hint.

Re: proc DS2: BASE driver, creation of a INTEGER column has been requested

Kurt_Bremser — Fri, 25 Mar 2016 09:51:41 GMT

Base SAS only knows two data types, character and numeric. All numeric variables are always stored as 8-byte (or less, if you specify it with a LENGTH statement) real (mantissa and exponent) numbers. All SAS tables are stored with these limits.

So the note just informs you that your numbers will be stored that way; since there is no other option, there is also no performance penalty or other negative effect. Just keep in mind that you may run into precision problems a little earlier than the overflow error you'd expect with 8-byte integers.

To avoid the NOTE, just stay with double.

Then why is "integer" there at all? If you run PROC DS2 against a table that is not a native SAS table, but in a database, and the database engine supports integer, then it will have an effect.