CUT NAMED SELECTION is more memory efficient than COPY NAMED SELECTION. With COPY NAMED SELECTION, it takes 4 bytes per record in the selection. With CUT NAMED SELECTION, only the reference to the list is moved, so it does not require any additional memory use.

After creating a named selection with COPY NAMED SELECTION and using it, you will need to clear it by using the CLEAR NAMED SELECTION command. This is not the case for the CUT NAMED SELECTION command. If the USE NAMED SELECTION command uses a named selection created with CUT NAMED SELECTION, this named selection will be automatically deleted after the call to the USE NAMED SELECTION command.

If you believe that your named selection could be used many times, the use of the COPY NAMED SELECTION command would be a better choice.