Date:         Thu, 20 May 2004 22:04:18 +0530
Reply-To:     "Sharma, Diwakar (Corporate)" <diwakar.sharma@GE.COM>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         "Sharma, Diwakar (Corporate)" <diwakar.sharma@GE.COM>
Subject:      SORT / SUBSET Vs SUBSET / SORT
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Hi,

Given a dataset having a character variable x, the aim is to create subset datasets such that :-
        subset dataset has x having same length
        subset dataset is sorted by x

                Example
                data a;
                input x $;
                cards;
                12
                56
                312
                8
                32
                756
                5
                76
                345
                ;
                run;

                The output should be

                dataset a1 having
                5
                8

                dataset a2 having
                12
                32
                56
                76

                dataset a3 having
                312
                345
                756


There are two approaches
        1. First Sort then Subset
        2. First Subset then Sort

Which is the better one ???? Any takers


Thanks
Diwakar