FHG Volume: 6 Archives

Stuff I Didn’t Publish This Year

December 13, 2006 Hey, Ted

This is regarding your recent posting titled “Quick Query over a Database File” that was published on August 23, 2006. This is truly a useless utility. There already is a RUNQRY command. Why would you post this as something that someone might be interested in? I use to wait anxiously for the next Four Hundred Guru e-mail and get really good things out of it, but this and some of the other ones posted are really not Guru material in my opinion. Next time maybe you can show them something like this: RUNQRY and press F4.

–Greg

Greg is absolutely

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The System i and Office 2007

December 13, 2006 Michael Sansoterra

It seems like only yesterday that I recall people touting the benefits of upgrading to Office 97. Well here we are 10 years later at the release of Office 2007. From a System i5 developer’s perspective, I’ll briefly cover a few of the benefits of upgrading to Office 2007 by discussing some enhancements to this latest version of the Microsoft productivity suite.

First of all, the Office 2007 user interface has been redone using the new “ribbon” user interface. The main difference with this new interface is that drop down menus are now replaced with toolbar-like icons. Instead of each

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Admin Alert: More Information on Fixed Storage and WRKSYSACT

December 13, 2006 Joe Hertvik

Several readers have recently contacted me about inaccurate and missing information in previous columns regarding storage pools and WRKSYSACT. When readers provide new information, I sometimes revisit a topic to correct obvious flaws, provide better information, or to expand reader knowledge. With this new input, I have researched better techniques for creating fixed storage pools and for finding missing commands. In two parts, here’s my expanded take on these subjects.

Part 1: No Virginia, You Cannot Create Fixed Storage Pools from the WRKSHRPOOL Screen, But. . .

In my July column on moving subsystems into their own storage pools,

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Easily Calculating Statistical Functions

December 6, 2006 Hey, Ted

The code associated with this article is available for download.

Would you be interested in publishing a program that calculates statistical values, such as average, standard deviation, maximum value, and minimum value? I have such a program, which I use in to calculate average usage and standard deviation of the usage of the items we handle.

–Victor Pisman

Thanks to faithful reader Victor Pisman for an interesting program. When I think of calculating an average, I think in terms of accumulating an amount and counting before dividing. Victor took a different approach, and I like it.

Victor’s RPG program,

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More About Commands and Variable-Length Parameters

December 6, 2006 Ted Holt

The code associated with this article is available for download.

Last week, I told you about an easy way to power programming–creating CL commands with variable-length parameters. Using variable-length parameters lets you pass variables of different sizes to commands, instead of requiring that you use variables of certain lengths. It also helps you to solve certain problems once, and be done with them. This week, I am going to show you how you can make the variable-length parameter technique even easier.

Last week’s command, ZEROSUP, invoked a CL program in order to strip leading zeros from a number stored

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Admin Alert: Quick and Dirty Ways to Find Job Gone Wild

December 6, 2006 Joe Hertvik

i5, iSeries, and AS/400 administrators dread the call telling them that: a) the system has ground to a halt; b) they better figure out why; because c) invoices are not printing, orders are not being entered; and d) the company president wants to talk to them. Fortunately, there are some simple i5/OS tools that you can use to find runaway jobs that cause performance problems.

When i5 systems choke up like this, chances are good that the system is slowing down because one or more jobs are using too much CPU time. This job could be in an infinite loop,

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Powerful Stuff: Creating Commands with Variable-Length Parameters!

November 29, 2006 Ted Holt

The code associated with this article is available for download.

If you like to solve the same problems over and over, this tip is not for you. As far as I’m concerned, that sort of thing is for the birds. I prefer to solve a problem once and move on to other challenges. If you agree, then I have a good technique to share with you.

One very good way to solve a problem once–and only once–is by writing your own CL commands. After all, you don’t write an RPG (COBOL, whatever HLL . . .) program when you

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Harnessing Your ODBC Users with Exit Programs

November 29, 2006 Bob Butcher

I check my daily Web logs to see what intranet Web applications are being used. The log gets updated on the AS/400 and provides a great tool for our auditors. I came in one morning and the log was empty. I thought that was funny because we normally get 175 to 200 entries per day. I checked the log throughout the day on that particular day and there were many entries of usage. The next morning, it was empty again. This was happening every morning when I came in. Because we do a lot of client server applications using ODBC,

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Using Different ODBC DSN Types for i5 Access

November 29, 2006 Hey, Joe

When I create new ODBC Data Sources to connect my Windows PCs to my i5 systems, I notice that Microsoft‘s ODBC Data Source Administrator will let me configure three different categories of Data Source Names (DSN): User DSN, System DSN, and File DSN. I always choose User DSN. Am I making the right choice?

–Bob

Don’t worry. No one has ever lost any teeth by choosing the wrong ODBC DSN type. Rather, form should follow function in DSN category selection and the type you select is wholly dependent on how you want to use your connection. Each DSN category

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Create Database Files from SQL Queries

November 15, 2006 Hey, Ted

While using interactive SQL/400 from a green-screen session, I can direct the output of an SQL command to a database file. Is there a way to direct the output of a dynamically created SQL command to a database file from a batch job?

–Rich

Yes, you have a few options. First, let’s review the steps you use in your interactive session, for the benefit of the readers.

From the interactive session, press F13 to access the Services panel. From there select option 1 (change session attributes), and enter 3 at the SELECT output prompt. Fill in file name, library, and

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