Who’s the Scoundrel That Corrupted My Database?
July 14, 2010 Dear Guru
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Yes, I’m talking to you. You who read this newsletter are gurus. Devoted and profoundly resourceful reader Sarah showed me a tip that I’ve got to share with you. Her technique makes it easy to find out who’s doing what with the database. Sometimes a user asks Sarah to determine who changed something in a file. The journal tells all. The problem is that journals are not easy to read. The data is stored in one big long field, called entry-specific data. However, Sarah has a way to break down the entry-specific data as it is defined in the database. Here’s how it’s done. Assume that physical file CUSTOMERS is journaled into journal MYJRN. Create a file–let’s call it JRNCUST–into which the journaled data will be copied. Here’s the DDS for JRNCUST. A R QJORDJE A JOENTL 5S 0 A JOSEQN 10S 0 A JOCODE 1A A JOENTT 2A A JODATE 6A A JOTIME 6S 0 A JOJOB 10A A JOUSER 10A A JONBR 6S 0 A JOPGM 10A A JOOBJ 10A A JOLIB 10A A JOMBR 10A A JOCTRR 10S 0 A JOFLAG 1A A JOCCID 10S 0 A JOINCDAT 1A A JOMINESD 1A A JORES 6A A COMPANYNO 3P 0 A CUSTOMERNO 5P 0 A CUSNAM 20A A BILLSTREET 16A A BILLCITY 12A A BILLSTATE 2A A BILLZIP 10A A SHIPSTREET 16A A SHIPCITY 12A A SHIPSTATE 2A A SHIPZIP 10A A TYPE 1A The first part of the file–everything from JOENTL to JORES–has the journaling information. The entry-specific data is replaced with the fields from the database file: COMPANYNO thru TYPE. To load the file, use the Display Journal (DSPJRN) command.
DSPJRN JRN(MYLB/MYJRN)
FILE((MYLB/CUSTOMERS))
ENTTYP(PT DL UB UP)
OUTPUT(*OUTFILE)
OUTFILFMT(*TYPE1)
OUTFILE(MYLB/JRNCUST)
Voilà! Use your favorite query tools to view the data in human-readable format. –Ted
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