fields A comma-delimited list of data fields in a RECORD structure.
The EXCEPT keyword specifies a list of fields not to use in a SORT, GROUP, DEDUP, or ROLLUP operation. This allows you to perform the operation on all fields in the RECORD EXCEPT those fields you name, making the code more readable and maintainable.
Example:
x := DATASET([{'Taylor','Richard','Jackson' ,'M'},
{'Taylor','David' ,'Boca' ,'M'},
{'Taylor','Rita' ,'Boca' ,'F'},
{'Smith' ,'Richard','Mansfield','M'},
{'Smith' ,'Oscar' ,'Boca' ,'M'},
{'Smith' ,'Rita' ,'Boca' ,'F'}],
{STRING10 lname, STRING10 fname,
STRING10 city, STRING1 sex });
y := SORT(x,EXCEPT sex); //sort on all fields but sex
OUTPUT(y)