I had never heard of "sqlobs" as an automatic macro variable and I think it can definitely help in reducing number of lines of code in a program. As we know, COUNT(*) and COUNT( variable ) may not provide the same value. "sqlobs" can be a substitute for both COUNT(*) and COUNT( variable ). I did a small test as shown below.

Thank you Chris for sharing this tip !

data example;

input num_value;
datalines;
1
2
.
4
;

/*Count will be 4*/
proc sql;
select count(*) from example;
quit;

proc sql;
select * from example;
quit;

%put Value of sqlobs is &sqlobs;