How to detect how many observations in a dataset (or if it is empty), in SAS?

Question

I wonder if there is a way of detecting whether a data set is empty, i.e. it has no observations. Or in another saying, how to get the number of observations in a specific d

Answer 1

I guess I am trying to reinvent the wheel here with so many answers already. But I do see some other methods trying to count from the actual dataset - this might take a long time for huge datasets. Here is a more efficient method:

proc sql;
select nlobs from sashelp.vtable where libname = "library" and memname="dataset";
quit;