What is the default length of a numeric value in SAS?

In SAS, the default length of a numeric value is indeed 8 bytes. This means that SAS uses 8 bytes of memory to store numeric values, which allows for a wide range of numeric representations, including both integers and floating-point numbers.

Using 8 bytes ensures that SAS can handle very large or small numbers, as it can represent values with a range approximately between -1.8 x 10^308 to 1.8 x 10^308, and can also represent decimal values with significant precision.

This choice reflects the design of SAS to efficiently manage and compute on a variety of numeric data types, which is crucial for data manipulation and analysis. Understanding the default storage for numeric values is important for optimizing data management and ensuring efficient use of resources within SAS programs.

Other lengths, such as 4 bytes, 16 bytes, or 32 bytes, do not correspond to the default for numeric data in SAS, as 4 bytes is typically used for certain integer values in specific contexts, while 16 and 32 bytes go beyond the standard default for numeric storage in SAS.