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Specifying System Options in the SAS Command

All SAS system options can be specified in the SAS command. Under CMS, you precede them with a left parenthesis.

In the following example, the LINESIZE= system option tells SAS to use a line length of 80 characters for the log file. The FULLSTIMER system option tells SAS to write system performance statistics to the SAS log. The ALTPRINT= system option tells SAS to send a copy of the procedure output to the procedure output file MYFILE LISTING A.

sas (linesize=80 fullstimer altprint='myfile listing a'

The next example uses the NODMS option to invoke SAS in interactive line mode. It also specifies the LINESIZE= and PAGESIZE= system options:

sas (nodms linesize=60 pagesize=80

As the examples show, system options that take a value (such as LINESIZE= and PRINT=) are specified in the following form:

option-name=value

If the value includes blank spaces, double quotation marks, or nonalphanumeric characters such as commas or periods, then the entire value must be enclosed in single quotation marks, as in the following INITSTMT= specification:

initstmt='libname test "a"; data a; set test.b; run;'

Similarly, if the value includes single quotation marks, then the entire value must be enclosed in double quotation marks.

Note:    The " (double quote) character is often defined by CMS as the escape character. If so, then specify two double quotes to represent a double quote to SAS. To determine whether this is the case, issue the following CMS command:

CP QUERY TERMINAL

Other system options (such as CENTER, STIMER, and STATS) can be thought of as on (enabled) or off (disabled). Specifying just the keyword enables the option; specifying the keyword with the prefix NO disables the option. In the following example, all of the options are disabled:

sas (nocenter nostimer nostats

If no system options are specified in the SAS command nor in a configuration file, then the SAS Institute default system options are in effect. However, your system manager may have overridden the SAS Institute default options; ask your system manager for details about the default options at your site.

Some options may take lists of values that are enclosed in parentheses. For example:

SASAUTOS=('mysfs:myuser.sasauto' 'mysfs:SAS.SASAUTOS')

If a list is not required because of a single value being specified, you may omit the parentheses.

For more information about SAS system options, see SAS Language Reference: Dictionary and System Options.

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