Case-Insensitive Comparisons and Sorts in RPG and Database Files

by Michael Sansoterra

Over the years, in the iSeries world, I've spent lots of time fiddling with RPG code to make sure that when comparing two string values, I'm comparing apples and apples. In other words, both strings are forced to have identical alphabetic case. This often involves taking the pains to make sure that one or both strings are converted to uppercase before a comparison is made.

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Updating Two or More Fields Through a Join

Hey, Ted:

I appreciated your suggestion to use COALESCE when updating a file through a join. But I was curious about which one is more efficient? I have to guess that it's COALESCE, because it doesn't appear to be executing another select with the EXISTS clause.

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Reader Feedback and Insights: Reader Appreciates the Basics

Hey, Ted:

It's true that some of us are just coming to know the AS/400. In the 27 years I have worked as a programmer, I have gone from a Honeywell to a short stint as a mainframe type, then on to Data General, and for the last 12 years to a Tandem box. Almost 97 percent of what I wrote was COBOL.