AhmedAl_Attar Tracker

Re: awesome-sas linklist

AhmedAl_Attar — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 12:58:38 GMT

Thank you for putting this together and sharing it with the rest of the community.

I have one suggestion though, as much as it pains me to say, but sadly all LexJansen links are "Invalid" now, so you may want to comment them out or hide them till further notice 😣
The community have lost a great champion and person!

Re: Does hash join not honor the memsize limitation?

AhmedAl_Attar — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 16:30:18 GMT

Hi @thesasuser

Not sure how you are launching you batch job, but you can override the default setting by specifying command line -memsize option, per job if needs be

Example:

/* Linux */
/.../SASHome/SASFoundation/9.4/sas -sysin Program.sas -memsize 8G

/* Windows */
"C:\Program Files\SASHome\SASFoundation\9.4\sas.exe -sysin program.sas -memsize 8G

Re: need help-cannot access SAS studio (SAS OnDemand) SASPY Connect to Spyder 6

AhmedAl_Attar — Tue, 11 Aug 2026 14:25:11 GMT

Hi @varundevgv

Check this SAS Support site https://support.sas.com/downloads/package.htm?pid=2494

To get the Three (3) jar files are needed by users who have Python software and who want to access the hosted SAS OnDemand servers.

Re: SAS is tooo slow

AhmedAl_Attar — Sat, 08 Aug 2026 16:22:57 GMT

@mdsaraiv2

The huge difference between your Real Time vs. CPU Time means you have slow Hard Disk/storage device!

Can you include/submit this options statement before your Proc Freq

options stimer fullstimer msglevel=I;

https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Communities-Library/FULLSTIMER-SAS-Option/ta-p/919350

Where you reading the data file from? Hard Disk/USB-Device/Network drive?

Here are couple useful SAS papers addressing performance issues
- Troubleshoot Your Performance Issues: SAS® Technical Support Shows You How

- Solving SAS® Performance Problems: Employing Host-Based Tools

- Solving SAS® Performance Problems: Our Methodology

Hope this helps

Re: SAS 9.4 M10: Continuing Support and Roadmap in the Era of Viya

AhmedAl_Attar — Sat, 08 Aug 2026 09:52:34 GMT

Yes,
Yo can use the following options statements, either in an autoexec.sas file or submit them in your SAS sessions

/* These settings are needed to enable running Python from within SAS */
/* Windows */
/* Proc FCMP Python Object settings */
options set=MAS_PYPATH="<PythonVEnvPath>\python.exe";
options set=MAS_M2PATH="C:\Program Files\SASHome\SASFoundation\9.4\tkmas\sasmisc\mas2py.py";

/* Proc Python settings */
options set=PROC_PYPATH=“<PythonVEnvPath>\python.exe"; options set=PROC_M2PATH="C:\Program Files\SASHome\SASFoundation\9.4\tk\sasmisc"; /* Linux */
/* Proc FCMP Python Object settings */
options set=MAS_PYPATH="<PythonVEnvPath>/python"; options set=MAS_M2PATH="<SASHome>/SASFoundation/9.4/misc/tkmas/mas2py.py";

/* Proc Python settings */
options set=PROC_PYPATH="<PythonVEnvPath>/python"; options set=PROC_M2PATH="<SASHome>/SASFoundation/9.4/misc/tk";

Re: SAS is tooo slow

AhmedAl_Attar — Sat, 08 Aug 2026 09:41:09 GMT

Which SAS product(s) you are installing?

What do you get in the log when you run the statements below

Proc options group=performance; run;

Re: SAS is tooo slow

AhmedAl_Attar — Sat, 08 Aug 2026 01:45:09 GMT

Create a file called sasv9.cfg and store it under the %USERPROFILE% (c:\users\<Name>) directory. Add the following to this sasv9.cfg file

-memsize 4G

-sortsize 3G

-cpucount 4

Note: these options have - (dash) part of the name

Re: SAS 9.4 M10: Continuing Support and Roadmap in the Era of Viya

AhmedAl_Attar — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 14:40:08 GMT

True,
I have it (Proc Python in SAS 9.4 M9) all configured and running for our users now on

Windows Desktops/Laptops
Linux Servers
Windows VDI

Using Miniconda as primary Python distribution

Re: SAS/ACCESS to DuckDB: Fast, Flexible Access to Modern Open File Formats

AhmedAl_Attar — Fri, 24 Jul 2026 12:46:48 GMT

@rhmthomson1 That's great to hear Robin 🙂, Thanks for the feedback
To me, the Quack Protocol simulates SAS/CONNECT and its RLS feature (Explicit Submit / Implicit data transfer), I cannot think of an exact use case now, but I'm sure the use cases are likely to present themselves once the functionality is implemented/integrated.

I think it's worth looking into these examples for inspirations, and possibilities

Re: SAS/ACCESS to DuckDB: Fast, Flexible Access to Modern Open File Formats

AhmedAl_Attar — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 10:31:48 GMT

Hi,
Are there any future plans to support DuckDB's Quack Protocol that's currently beta in DuckDB v1.5.2, but planned for Production release with DuckDB v2.0?

Re: Any success with a SAS upgrade?

AhmedAl_Attar — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 11:42:39 GMT

Hi @RexDeus9

Before attempting to Upgrade in Place, I would highly advise running the SAS 9 system evaluation application which is part of the Contents Assessment Tool

"SAS 9 system evaluation uncovers known deployment issues you might have that would cause Upgrade in Place to fail. Information was gathered from various customers who experienced issues in the past when using this method. SAS discovered there are some key items we can check and fix before our customers try to upgrade (i.e. an expired license or what’s installed doesn’t match the order). The system evaluation was built to expose those issues so they can be fixed before the upgrade. Running the evaluation is not a guarantee that every issue will be found, however it will reduce the risk that your upgrade will fail."

Ensure SAS 9.4 M9 is supported on your current OS version

Windows platforms

Windows Server 2025, 2022, 2019, 2016 are supported for SAS 9.4M9.
Windows 11 and Windows 10 (64‑bit) are also supported for workstation-style deployments.

UNIX/Linux platforms

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.10, 9.1+ within 9.x, and 10.x (within the 10.x family) are supported.
Oracle Linux 8.10, 9.1+ within 9.x, and 10.0+ (within 10.x) are supported, along with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP3+.

AIX and mainframe

IBM AIX 7.2 with TL5 and IBM AIX 7.3 are listed as supported UNIX platforms for SAS 9.4M9.
On the mainframe, SAS 9.4M9 runs on IBM z/OS V3R1 or later.

Hope this helps

Re: Migration- SAS 9.4 to SAS Viya - Spk file export

AhmedAl_Attar — Sun, 01 Feb 2026 23:14:51 GMT

Hi @Somu

Disclaimer: I have not been involved in such migration before, but what I know

- The SAS Contents Assessment tool has an option to examine all your existing SAS Programs (*.sas) and identify issues related to hard coded paths and other stuff that may not be applicable to your new Viya Platform.

- Other consideration for your SAS programs would be to determine whether or not to CAS enable them, and which part?

- Your SAS data sets will need to have utf-8 encoding, and this may involve converting them if they have been using another encoding such as Latine1 or something else.

- Your current SAS Formats catalogs, would need to be rebuilt using utf-8 encoding, which may involve reverse engineering if these formats don't have associated scripts/programs to re-create them.

Long Story Short -- Migration is a lengthy process and needs to be planned and phased out on several stages/phases. Such decisions should pay attention to business needs and priorities, resource availability and skills sets, plus many other factors.

Try to watch these recorded webinars to see what others had gone through in their migration journey

Hope this helps

Re: Connect to SAS server from R via SAS JDBC - dbConnect() Error

AhmedAl_Attar — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 16:05:44 GMT

Just as an FYI, Enterprise Guide is a .NET software which does not use JDBC protocol.

EG uses connection profile, which stores information such as

- Connection name:

- Connection Description:

- Metadata Server name

- Port : 8591 (Default)

- UserName:

- UserPW:

Your username has to be registered in the SAS Metadata base in order to authenticate you first, before it can figure out your authorization settings.
So if you don't have to SAS Enterprise Guide, contact your "SAS experts"/SAS Admin and verify you are registered and authorized to access the SAS deployment

Re: Connect to SAS server from R via SAS JDBC - dbConnect() Error

AhmedAl_Attar — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 15:02:46 GMT

@andre_young

I personally try to verify connection using multiple software packages where possible.
I would recommend finding another JDBC supporting software be it free, such as DBeaver Community Edition, or commercial, whichever you can get access to, to try connecting to SAS via JDBC.

In the past, I have discovered different packages have different level of support to standard protocols such JDBC/ODBC. Even Driver providers, have different level of supporting/implementing Driver Specifications.

Just a thought

Re: Connect to SAS server from R via SAS JDBC - dbConnect() Error

AhmedAl_Attar — Tue, 09 Dec 2025 16:34:18 GMT

@andre_young

Have a look into this guide for connection examples
SAS 9.4 Drivers for JDBC: Cookbook

Look on page 26 (32/58), at the bottom, there is JDBC URL connection example

Hope it helps

Re: wide or long structure

AhmedAl_Attar — Tue, 09 Dec 2025 13:25:24 GMT

Hi @Ronein

One technique I've been using to reduce my SAS data set size, is setting my Integer numeric variable to length of 3 instead of the default 8!

Where these integer values are typically used to store Boolean flags (0/1, True/False) for modeling purposes. But if you intent to use these integers for aggregations, then keeping them with the default length of 8, would preserve their precision.

Check this SAS on-line help SAS Help Center: Numeric Precision for more details.

Hope this helps

Re: SAS 9 Content Assessment

AhmedAl_Attar — Fri, 21 Nov 2025 20:14:15 GMT

@RexDeus9
Can you please clarify what do you mean by multiple servers?

Is it

Multiple tiers (Meta, Compute, Web)
OR
Multiple instances of each tier (Meta, MetaN, Comp1, Comp2, CompN, Web, WebN)

@GerryNelson any insight/tips you can share here?

Re: SAS 9 Content Assessment

AhmedAl_Attar — Thu, 20 Nov 2025 19:47:20 GMT

Hi @RexDeus9
Have a look at this blog https://blogs.sas.com/content/sgf/2021/07/23/how-to-use-the-sas-9-content-assessment-tool/?msclkid=bfef1e72c7e711ec90c9d3ffa50f819e

And this Tech Support doc: https://support.sas.com/content/dam/SAS/support/en/technical-papers/sas-content-assessment-proven-practice.pdf

Hope this helps

Re: Real Time of Proc Contents High Using RSubmit

AhmedAl_Attar — Sun, 09 Nov 2025 12:45:16 GMT

Hi @Kastchei

Regardless of the size of your data set, most of the information provided by Proc Contents are already stored in the SAS supplied data dictionary tables/view!

Proc contents displays the metadata (data dictionary) of a SAS dataset, including variable names, types, lengths, and attributes like labels and formats. It is also used to view the structure of a library or a specific table, showing information such as the number of observations, variables, and when the dataset was created. This makes it a valuable tool for understanding a dataset, verifying that data was imported correctly, and performing more intelligent data processing.

Guess what, as soon as you assign a libname that contains your SAS data set(s), SAS behind the scenes gathers all the metadata about your SAS data sets.

Check this paper Exploring DICTIONARY Tables and Views for more details.

Note: Running proc contents does not require splitting your data set, regardless of how big it is.

Hope this helps

Re: Parallel Execution in SAS Studio Flows on Compute

AhmedAl_Attar — Fri, 07 Nov 2025 15:40:38 GMT

Hi @PhilGUK

Considering what you have mentioned "We are SAS Studio Version: Stable 2025.09", it sounds like you are running/using SAS Viya!!

While Lift (v9 code) and Shift (run on Viya compute) is possible, it does not always give you all the performance enhancements that comes with Viya!!

If you have the option/ability to convert your existing/current SAS V9 code to utilize CAS and CASL, you may find yourself not needing explicit Parallel code execution, because CAS and CASL does that implicitly behind the scenes for you and cuts down the 50 min processing to much lower.

Just a thought, hope it gives you another perspective