topic Re: SAS data file size comparing to Excel file size in SAS Programming

SAS data file size comparing to Excel file size

deleted_user — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 17:54:25 GMT

If the data are the same, when the data is in a SAS data set format, the file size is always bigger than if the data is saved in Excel right? Anyone know why? Thanks.

Re: SAS data file size comparing to Excel file size

sbb — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 18:23:27 GMT

And why is this important? If you are concerned about space usage, consider the SAS system option COMPRESS=YES, however the results will be data-dependent. And consider that character versus numeric data stored by each could have an impact on size.

Scott Barry
SBBWorks, Inc.

Re: SAS data file size comparing to Excel file size

ChrisNZ — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 03:01:38 GMT

You are comparing apples and oranges here really.

Sas has to fit database usage requirements like:
-maintain dataset header information,
-maintain variable metadata (formats, etc),
-allow instantaneous direct access to any record,
-use fixed length storage (unless you request compression)
-allow hooks for aging, integrity constraints, index usage
-etc.

Excel doesn't do any of that, it just stores in whatever (probably somewhat compressed) format it sees fit that opens the file in a quick fashion. None of the constraints above apply (but others do, like loading the whole file in one go), as the usage is totally different.

As I said, apples and oranges. 🙂