Date:         Tue, 6 Aug 2002 08:15:55 -0400
Reply-To:     "Livingston, Arthur (OIG/OAS)" <ALIVINGSTON@OIG.HHS.GOV>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         "Livingston, Arthur (OIG/OAS)" <ALIVINGSTON@OIG.HHS.GOV>
Subject:      Re: a (Raithel-type) tape question
Comments: To: "McCracken, Mary" <MFie2@ALLSTATE.COM>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Mary:

I have to do this quite frequently with data that I receive.  I usually sort the data by a unique variable (usually a product code or member id), then read each tape to determine what the first record on each tape.  By doing this, I know that if I have to find a particular record(s) on a tape, I can just ask for that specific tape to be mounted.

Since you only want the first 20 records from the tapes code your JCL like this:

//INPUT1   DD DISP=SHR,
//         DSN=TAPE.PMT0201.MATHHPOL.SAS,
//         VOL=SER=XXXXXX

-----Original Message-----
From: McCracken, Mary [mailto:MFie2@ALLSTATE.COM]
Sent: Monday, August 05, 2002 3:05 PM
To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: a (Raithel-type) tape question


Hi All,

I am rather new to the MVS platform and still trying to master all the
information from Michael Raithel's wonderful book.  However I  have stumbled
upon a question that I can not seem to find the answer to.  I am trying to
take a sample of the first 20 observations of a SAS dataset.  When done with
a disk file, the results are almost instantaneous.

However, I am trying to do the same with a tape file.  The file is on 9
tapes.  All 9 tapes are mounted and read before SAS seems to acknowledge
that there is a global parm limiting it 20 records.  Can someone explain to
me why all 9 tapes need to be mounted?  Is there a faster way to take a
small sample of a tape file?

My coding is below.  Thanks in advance for any assistance!

-Mary

//SAS2SAS  JOB PMT0201,M.FIELDEN,
//       CLASS=D,MSGCLASS=P,NOTIFY=MFIEL
//*==================================================
//STEP1 EXEC SAS,REGION=6800K
//INPUT1   DD DISP=SHR,
//         DSN=TAPE.PMT0201.MATHHPOL.SAS
//OUTREC1  DD DISP=(NEW,CATLG),UNIT=DISK,
//         SPACE=(CYL,(950,500),RLSE),
//         DSN=TEMP.PMT0201.DATASET.SAS.SAMPLE
//SYSIN    DD *
 options obs=20  ERROR=2
   nocenter ps=800 ls=120;

 DATA OUTREC1.DATA;
   SET INPUT1.DATA;
 RUN;