Note: The code accompanying this article is available for download here.

Sorting data is something RPG programs often need to do. If it’s just a simple single field array you’re sorting in order to use the much faster binary search possible with %Lookup, for example, then SORTA works well and is simple. But what if it is a more complex task like sorting the data in a subfile on a user-selected column? Surely you need some more involved techniques, such as retrieving the data from the database again using a different ORDER BY on an SQL SELECT statement or

How can I tell if a character column contains a valid representation of numeric data? I have a column expression in a Select statement that needs to convert character Column A to numeric only when it contains a valid numeric representation. If Column A doesn’t contain a numeric representation, then I need to convert Column B to numeric.

—FHG reader

Testing for valid numeric representation is an important task. The problem is that casting character data to numeric will result in a run time error if the data is invalid and therefore it is appropriate to test the data

In the last two issues, I discussed i5/OS problems that occur with system job table overflows, and how overflows can hurt your system. This week, I’m wrapping up the series by going over my own recent experience with job table overflows. I’ll also share some excellent reader advice on job tables that’s been coming into my mailbox lately.

What Are System Job Tables; The Short Version

System job tables are internal system objects that i5/OS uses to track partition jobs. There can be up to 10 job tables on a partition, and the maximum number of system jobs