What does 'Sort Order' do on a column in a SAS table

[eagles_dare13]

In SAS DI Studio, if I create a new table with a few columns, I see there is the option of specifying 'Sort Order' on a column.

What does this do? if I specify 'Sort Order' ascending on a column and load data in the table in  random un ordered fashion, will SAS automatically sort the data based on the column? It is not doing that, so I was wondering what is the use of a 'Sort Order' column?

[art297]

I'm not familiar with DI Studio but, if the description at SAS(R) Data Integration Studio 4.21: User's Guide is what you are asking about, it is simply where you would specify the sort criteria to use when you do include a sort node.

[LinusH · Accepted solution]

If you press help in the properties window for a table, the following is stated about Sort Order:

"The Sort Order field is used only to document the intended use of a given column. It does not implement a given usage. For example, selecting the ASCENDING value does not sort the values in that column when that column is used in a SAS Data Integration Studio job. "