The SET and RETAIN statements are in the wrong order. On Thu, Mar 20, 2008 at 8:02 AM, DaDoctor <brett.a.summers@bankofamerica.com> wrote: > Fellow Members: > > I am working ordering a SAS dataset and thought I could use the retain > statement for this purpose. > > However, the process is bombing. > > syntax: > > data temp_dset; > set out.perm_dset; > retain var1 var2.........; > > run; > > > suggestions on what I am doing wrong? >