Early in the new year, many of us make decisions designed to make our lives simpler, more meaningful, and less costly. So selecting 2012's first weekly tip was actually quite easy.  Phil Holland's revered guide Saving Time and Money Using SAS is a natural fit. I've featured a few excerpts from Phil's work in the past and continue to look to him for inspiration. Before 2012 ends, I'm sure you'll spot another work-friendly tip from Phil. Although perhaps it will be from the new book PROC TEMPLATE Made Easy: A Guide for SAS Users that he's coauthoring with Kevin D. Smith.

If you ever have a little extra time (I know, I know), I'd love to get your suggestions about the kinds of tips or topics you'd like to see covered here on our blog. In the meantime, stay warm, keep on using SAS, and may the new year bring you endless rewards!

The following excerpt is from SAS Press author Phil Holland's book "Saving Time and Money Using SAS" Copyright © 2007,  SAS Institute Inc., Cary, North Carolina, USA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. (please note that results may vary depending on your version of SAS software

Releasing Unused Space in a SAS Data Library

Finally, if you want to save some space on a disk volume in advance of the archiving system’s nightly cleanup, then PROC RELEASE will enable you to release the unused space at the end of the SAS data library to an extent boundary, e.g.:

Note that it will not release free space from the middle of the data library. The simplest method of freeing all the unused disk space from within a SAS data library is to create a new SAS data library, copy all the SAS objects from the old data library to the new with PROC COPY, delete the old data library, rename the new data library to the name of the old one, and finally run PROC RELEASE to release any unused space at the end of the new data library. The SAS objects will be located at the beginning of the new SAS data library as they are copied over.

This saving can also be achieved when allocating a SAS data library using the RLSE option in the SPACE parameter, e.g.:

You can learn more about Phil Holland, read a free chapter from Saving Time and Money Using SAS, as well as find all the ways you can connect directly with him by visiting his author page.