Of Middle-Tested Loops

July 27, 2005 Hey, Ted

I recently came across the Recursion and the Alternatives story that you wrote, which gives an example of a program that explodes a bill of material. I noticed that in this program, you used the following statement:

DOW      '1'

Can you explain what this means? I have been preaching the importance of readability in programs and this baffles me. It seems like it would be better to code something like DOW NOT %EOF(MYFILE). I am actually using a modified version of your “Chase” routine, but this DOW ‘1’ statement bugs me.

–Eric

This is not the sort of thing I

Use SQL to Easily Update Multi-Key Files

July 27, 2005 Hey, Ted

Updating a single record in a file that has a lot of key fields often requires SQL commands with complicated WHERE clauses. I use a technique with web applications that greatly simplifies the WHERE clause. I have never seen this technique published before, so I hope you can use it.

When I retrieve a record that will be updated through a Web browser, I select the relative record number along with the data.

SELECT RRN(MyFile) as storedRRN, MyFile.* 
  FROM MyFile 
 WHERE ENBBTYPE = 'COPY' and ENBBTCH# = 4062

When I update, I need only refer to the relative record number.

Admin Alert: To Each Its Own in Spooled File Management

July 27, 2005 Joe Hertvik

Long-time OS/400 users understand that green screen commands can provide efficient ways to manage OS/400 objects, especially printouts. But smart administrators also know that IBM‘s iSeries Navigator graphical management tool can up the ante on spooled file management, providing additional flexibility not usually found on the green screen. This week, let’s review OS/400’s graphical and command-line functions for spool file management and see how they contrast and complement each other.

The heart of green screen spool file management lies in the commands found in the Spooled File Commands menu, which can be accessed through the following Go to Menu