Dataset options

There are many built-in SAS options that apply to the dataset. The broad purpose of these options is to help us do the following:

• Rename variables
• Select variables for subsetting
• Retain select variables
• Specify the password for a dataset, compress it, and encrypt it

Throughout this book, we will be looking at various dataset options. We will begin by exploring the compress, encrypt, and index options.

Compression

Compression reduces the number of bytes that are required to store each observation. The advantage of compression is that it requires less storage, owing to the fact that fewer bytes are required and fewer I/O operations are necessary to read or write to the data during processing.

The biggest disadvantage...