topic Re: File size as compared to SPSS in SAS Procedures

File size as compared to SPSS

amym — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 15:00:44 GMT

When I save a dataset in SAS and in SPSS, the SAS file is significantly larger than the SPSS file (e.g., 7 MB is SAS and 968 KB in SPSS).

Does anyone know why this is and if there is a way that I can decrease the file size in SAS?

Thanks!

Re: File size as compared to SPSS

Doc_Duke — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 15:20:43 GMT

Why: they store data differently.

To reduce the file size in SAS, the best way is the judicious use of the LENGTH statement. With that big a difference in files sizes, I suspect that you have some character fields that are very long.

Doc Muhlbaier
Duke

Re: File size as compared to SPSS

Peter_C — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 11:48:27 GMT

Another way to reduce the storage required for SAS tables is the compress=char option.
It won't always reduce the storage required, but for tables with a lot of white space (wide character columns that are not always filled) the saving can be substantial.

data demo_wide (compress= yes) ;
length wide1-wide20 $32760 ;
do i= 1 to 100 ;
output ;
end;
run ;
generates these messages[pre]NOTE: The data set WORK.DEMO_WIDE has 100 observations and 21 variables.
NOTE: Compressing data set WORK.DEMO_WIDE decreased size by 98.00 percent.
Compressed is 2 pages; un-compressed would require 100 pages.
NOTE: DATA statement used [/pre]Of course you won't get 98% decrease when you store data, but I suspect if SPSS can store the information in a much smaller space, then the compress option on your SAS table would reduce its demand for disk space too.