3# astraes
What you did is nothing to do with RAM/Memory.
As I undersatand, before SAS executes a program(data step/procs), SAS complier will calculate the memory requirments. If it cannot allocate memories, it issues an error. A User does/is not need/allowed to manage the memory allocation.
30 data _null_;
31 array x (1000000000) _temporary_;
FATAL: Insufficient memory to execute DATA step program. Aborted during the COMPILATION phase.
NOTE: The SAS System stopped processing this step because of insufficient memory.
NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):
real time 0.00 seconds
cpu time 0.00 seconds
32 stop;
33 run;
You may be better off to pose your problem in details, others may come up a better idea for your problem.
HTH