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  SAS Institute logo.    Appending one dataset to another.


When joining two datasets together use PROC APPEND rather than SET. Using the SET statement means that all observations from both files need to be read, whereas only the new dataset need be read. For this reason, it is more efficient to append a small (new) file to a large (base) file. If variables exist on the new dataset which don’t appear on the base one (or vice versa), the FORCE option must be used.

The format is of Proc Append is ;

PROC APPEND BASE (or OUT) =base-dataset
            NEW (or DATA) =dataset-to-append <FORCE>;

e.g. ;

PROC APPEND OUT=CSOUTFIT NEW=HOWOUTOF FORCE;