I have a slightly different solution to the locked record problem your friends tackled in Bypassing a Locked Record. Like them, I have RPG programs that sequentially read a file and update some of the records. When a program tries to read a record that another job has locked, I sometimes bypass the locked record. Here’s how.

Notice the READ operation in the second calculation of this example:

FSomeFile  UF   E           K Disk    Prefix(SR_)
                                                 
D Forever         S               N   inz(*On)   
D Open            C                   Const(' ') 
D Closed          C                   Const('Z') 
                                                 
 /Free                                           
     DoW Forever;                                
         Read(E) SomeRec;                        
         If %Eof(SomeFile);                      
             Leave;                              
         EndIf;                                  
         If %Error();                            
             

To update a table (physical file) through an SQL cursor, use the FOR UPDATE OF clause in your UPDATE command. (I have written about FOR UPDATE OF before.) When you update through an SQL cursor, avoid two mistakes that can cause a performance problem.

First, don’t forget to include FOR UPDATE OF. The SQL preprocessor does not require you to include this clause, and will not generate a message to warn you of its omission. If you do not specify FOR UPDATE OF, SQL assumes that you want to update all columns (fields).

Second, list only the columns that

I love stories with Cassandra characters, the slightly crazed player who accurately foresees oncoming doom, only to be mocked or ignored. Like Cassandra, i5/OS systems can also see events that portend system problems, clear omens that can easily be missed or ignored. This week and next, I’ll discuss avoiding doom by monitoring several i5/OS situations that should be checked early and often. Ignore these warning at your own peril!!!

Finding Doom On Your Local i Partition

Omen hunting on iSeries, System i, and Power i machines is a lot easier if you know where to look. I’ve generally found the