Tips:PROC DATASETS Efficiencies

From sasCommunity

Data sets and variables can be modified using a data step or PROC DATASETS. PROC DATASETS is more efficient for updating large datasets because it doesn’t read in the entire file (like a data step does), just the descriptor portion of the dataset.

With this procedure you can label, format and rename variables, add or remove an index, as well as rename, append, or copy datasets. See the SAS documentation for a complete list of all the tasks you can perform with PROC DATASETS.