SQL is a superb data access tool in terms of ease of use and versatility. Data extraction routines that used to take hours to write in RPG or COBOL often takes minutes to write in SQL. The one draw back to dynamic SQL (as compared to data access routines written in a high level language), is that the DB2 query optimizer often takes precious time to figure out how to best execute an SQL request. To take the edge off this performance hit, dynamic SQL statements can be made “reusable” by using parameter markers so that the query optimizer can

Your recent article, Stuffing Five Digits into Four, is a trip in the way, way back machine for me. I had to do this very thing on System/3 in RPG II! I’m writing to let you know that there is a way to stuff those five digits into four using native I/O.

As you’ve discovered, RPG’s ‘B’ data type limits you to 4 digits; it’s in the manual, but that’s where data types ‘B’ and ‘I’ differ. ‘B’ is intended to preserve x digits, from 0000 to 9999 (including sign) but the newer ‘I’ is intended to emulate the

i5, iSeries, and AS/400 administrators frequently need to set up test libraries containing files that were duplicated from a live environment. While creating test environment data is not difficult, there are some pitfalls and shortcuts to the process that you should be aware of. This week, I will look at the method behind duplicating files and how you can easily maneuver files from one library to another.

The best way to illustrate i5/OS file duplication techniques is to create a sample scenario that you can modify for your own test library creation. For my situation, let’s assume that I am