Proc Tabulate SAS Guide 6.1

[RickyS]

I'm using EG 6.1 in project mode, trying to run a proc tabulate (Summary Table) and save the output to a new table that I can use later. 

The problem is it runs forever and never finishes, I have tried to reduce the data set size by filtering with an expectation that I can join the multiple summary tables together when complete.  No luck so far.

I plan to try and code in both SAS and Proc SQL vs using the project designer to see if this makes a difference, wondering if anyone has attempted simiar and what your outcome was.

Or does this come down to environment I.e. server size, # of end users, 64bit/PC processor etc. Searching for answers.

Thanks   

[TomKari · Accepted solution]

Hi, Ricky

First of all, EG generates SAS code that it submits to run on a SAS server. In terms of slow performance, there's three things we can consider right off; speed of actually doing the tabulation, speed of communicating between your PC and the SAS server, and issues relating to the size of your tabulated product being very large.

Tackling the third first, are you asking the Summary Tables task to create a very large output? (in terms of rows and columns). Since what is returned is a "print format" image, it can be very large and take a long time to transfer from server to PC. If that's the case, I would suggest using the Summary Statistics task (which uses PROC MEANS, the "heavy lifter" of the SAS tabulation procs), turn off "Show statistics", and turn on "Save statistics to a data set".

In terms of long tabulations, is the dataset being analyzed very large, either in row or column terms? If it's long tabulation time, I don't think you'll see anything faster with any other procedures, although I always consider PROC MEANS to be the fastest.

And finally, communications. What's the link between your PC and the server? Is it slow for other data transfers?

Let us know more about what you're trying to do, your source data, and your environment, and it should be solvable.

Tom