Proc Sort SAS - Replacement
Increase PROC speed with CoSort
Challenge
The native PROC Sort performance in SAS v7-9 for Unix is not as fast or memory-efficient as you might want for some very large datasets. You may not want to use or license the default sort options that SAS provides with their base Unix or Windows systems for performance or cost reasons.
Solution
SAS versions 7 and 8 for Unix support the use of IRI CoSort as an alternative sorting service provider with minimal installation and implementation issues. CoSort can improve sorting performance for large volumes by up to 600%.
SAS has not yet incorporated IRI's CoSort add-on into SAS 9.x; however, specific requests to re-enable this affordable, high-performance sorting and data transformation option within the SAS environment can here placed. Please provide the aforementioned reasons for the desire for a direct CoSort hook and personally contact your SAS representatives to obtain a post-implementation estimate.
Please note that you can also include SAS datasets as both a source and a target in all IRI data management and data protection programs via ODBC, if you have this driver installed and/or use IRI tools efficiently against flat files for SAS import/export.
While SAS itself provides powerful options such as PROC Sort, using external solutions like IRI CoSort remains a proven method for significantly increasing processing speed. The CoSort service offers a significant performance boost, particularly when processing millions or billions of records that exceed the capabilities of conventional functions. For Unix environments, integrating CoSort with the SAS PROC Sort function has been shown to increase efficiency by up to 600%. This makes CoSort an ideal complement for users grappling with data-intensive processes.
Integration into new SAS Versions However, it should be noted that CoSort is not natively integrated into SAS 9.x. If you still wish to benefit from the exceptional performance of this solution, you can direct requests for the activation of this hook directly to SAS. In your request, you should clearly articulate the need for a more powerful and cost-effective sorting solution. Such a step could encourage the resumption of support for IRI CoSort in future SAS versions.
Additionally, IRI CoSort offers the ability to directly process SAS datasets if ODBC drivers are present. This applies to both usage within IRI's other data management programs and for direct work with flat files that can later be imported into or exported from SAS.