Date:         Wed, 13 Dec 2006 16:43:58 -0500
Reply-To:     "Howard Schreier <hs AT dc-sug DOT org>" <nospam@HOWLES.COM>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         "Howard Schreier <hs AT dc-sug DOT org>" <nospam@HOWLES.COM>
Subject:      Re: which file format loads quickest?

On Tue, 12 Dec 2006 14:03:19 -0800, jared_hellman@YAHOO.COM wrote:

>Hello all,
>
>I am working in a Unix environment and I have a dataset which I would
>like to save with dimensions:
>~20000 vars
>~25000 obs
>logical record length of ~800000
>
>Saving this file as a V8 transport file means I can expect to wait
>about 11-12 minutes for it to load using proc cimport.  Is there
>another format I can save this file in that would allow me to access it
>with a quicker load time?
>
>Thanks!
>-Jared

What's the reason for not using the default native engine?

In addition to the other good suggestions which have been made, consider
using the SAS compression option if the data set is sparse.