SORT Subcommand (SET command)

By default, IBM® SPSS® Statistics tries to use an external, third-party sorting mechanism, which may reduce processing time with large data sources. The third-party sorting option is available only if you have IBM SPSS Statistics Server. The specific sorting engine is defined by your server administrator. If you are not connected to the IBM SPSS Statistics Server or the IBM SPSS Statistics Server cannot find the third-party sort engine, the built-in sorting mechanism is used.

EXTERNAL. Use the external, third-party sort engine if available. This setting is the default. If the third-party sort engine is not available, this setting is ignored, and the built-in sorting mechanism is used. COXREG and CURVEFIT use built-in sorting regardless of the SORT setting.

INTERNAL. Use the built-in sorting mechanism.

SS. This setting is deprecated. It has the same effect as EXTERNAL.