LJ
in another forum this would be more appropriate
or call customer support, or contact them online at
http://support.sas.com/techsup/contact/submit_emits2.html
it should be on a FAQ
"or just use retain"
or better still, please explain why internal order has any relevance to all users of the data table,
but
please do that in another forum
ODS and base SAS Reporting have many ways to help you select the required order. They just have no way of knowing the order you are going to need next. I see only simplicity in the current scheme - when reporting you specify the column order you want. I see only disappointment in preparing "column order", for later, or for someone-else.
In another forum your topic appears frequently.
Here is a link to one I recall :
http://tinyurl.com/f9ku9
PeterC