Error Checking and Embedded SQL

June 8, 2005 Hey, Ted

We are still new to the world of embedded SQL. We are still trying to determine how to check for success or failure of SQL commands. So far we have determined that we should use the SQL code and SQL state variables, both of which seem to serve the same purpose. Can you give us some direction?

–Pat

Good question, Pat. I have seen programs that had no error checking for the SQL commands. When something goes wrong, they just keep on truckin’! Then people wonder why the database is messed up.

Here’s the method I use. It has worked

Query/400 Does Exponentiation, Sort Of

June 8, 2005 Ted Holt and Bob Ellsworth

Dear Colleagues:

Query/400, the software IBM never got around to completing, does not have an exponentiation operator, but that did not stop Bob Ellsworth from making Query carry out exponentiation. If you’ve seen Bob’s tips before, you may remember that Bob is the guy who makes Query do what it was never designed to do. Here’s the technique Bob shared with me to answer a question from a reader.

–Ted

I am new to IBM and Query/400 and have a problem with a result field. I am working with two pieces of data:

1. Cost with no decimals (e.g., 300)

Admin Alert: A Better Technique for Detecting Invalid Log-In Attempts

June 8, 2005 Joe Hertvik

Recently, I wrote an article explaining how to monitor the OS/400 history log, QHST, for invalid log-in attempts. No sooner had that issue of Four Hundred Guru hit the Web than I received a reader email that contained an excellent suggestion for finding even more invalid log-in attempts than I had found with my technique. Here’s the scoop.

Reader Shalom Carmel wrote in to note that my original solution was too focused on finding invalid log-in attempts from 5250 green-screen terminals, to the detriment of locating invalid log-in attempts originating from other applications and OS/400 servers. He wrote:

In your