WARNING and ERROR messages in SAS serve a useful purpose, but there are certain situations where the message is known, anticipated, and it may be deemed acceptable to suppress it.
One such example is the message:
WARNING: This CREATE TABLE statement recursively references the target table. A consequence of this is a possible data integrity problem
when writing a SAS dataset back over itself in PROC SQL.
In DATA step syntax, it is not uncommon to generate a dataset, then write back over the dataset in a subsequent process (although some developers prefer not to), e.g.
data boys (drop = sex) ; set sashelp.class ; where sex = 'M' ; run ; data boys ; set boys ; name = upcase(name) ; run ;
No messages are written to the LOG advising that the dataset will be altered during the subsequent process.
Performing a comparable process in PROC SQL:
proc sql noprint ; create table girls as select * from sashelp.class where sex = 'F' ; quit ; proc sql noprint ; create table girls as select upcase(name) as name ,age ,height ,weight from girls ; quit ;
generates the WARNING message in the LOG.
The message is generated as a consequence of the default setting of a GLOBAL System Option:
options sqlundopolicy = required | optional | none ;
The possible values denote:
REQUIRED * | The system reverses all inserts or updates that have been done to the point of the error. |
OPTIONAL | The system reverses all inserts or updates that can be reliably reversed. |
NONE | Keeps any changes made. |
* Default action
The disparity between the DATA step and PROC SQL solutions may result in a developer electing to suppress the WARNING message, and this can be done, either by changing the Global System Option, or by over-riding the Global System Option with an option on a PROC SQL statement.
Either of:
options sqlundopolicy = none ;
or
proc sql undo_policy = none ;
will suppress the WARNING.
As with many such SAS options the statement option takes precedence over the Global option.