STOP Statement

Stops execution of the current DATA step.

Valid in:	DATA step
Categories:	Action
Categories:	CAS
Type:	Executable

Table of Contents

Syntax

STOP;

Details

The STOP statement causes SAS to stop processing the current DATA step immediately and resume processing statements after the end of the current DATA step.

SAS writes a data set for the current DATA step. However, the observation being processed when STOP executes is not added. The STOP statement can be used alone or in an IF-THEN statement or SELECT group.

Use STOP with any features that read SAS data sets using random access methods, such as the POINT= option in the SET statement. Because SAS does not detect an end-of-file with this access method, you must include program statements to prevent continuous processing of the DATA step.

Comparisons

When you use a windowing environment or other interactive methods of operation, the ABORT statement and the STOP statement both stop processing. The ABORT statement sets the value of the automatic variable _ERROR_ to 1, but the STOP statement does not.
In batch or noninteractive mode, the two statements also have different effects. Use the STOP statement in batch or noninteractive mode to continue processing with the next DATA or PROC step.

Examples

Example 1: Basic Usage

```
stop;
```
```
if idcode=9999 then stop;
```

select (a);
   when (0) output;
   otherwise stop;
end;

Example 2: Avoiding an Infinite Loop

This example shows how to use STOP to avoid an infinite loop within a DATA step when you are using random access methods:

data sample;
   do sampleobs=1 to totalobs by 10;
      set master.research point=sampleobs nobs=totalobs;
      output;
   end;
   stop;
run;