FHG Archives - Page 37 of 144

Specify SQL Table-creation Library at Runtime

April 25, 2012 Hey, Ted

I have an RPG programs that creates work tables in QTEMP. I’d like to be able to specify the library at runtime. I tried using a host variable for the library in a CREATE TABLE command, but that didn’t fly. I am using the system naming convention. Can you help?

–Ben

I wish CREATE TABLE would allow a host variable for the explicit qualifier, but it doesn’t. Here are a few ways that work.

1. Use dynamic SQL. Embed the library name in the SQL command.

D SqlCommand      s            256a   varying
D WorkLib         s             10a
 /free
     *inlr = *on;
     SqlCommand

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Getting PC5250 F1-F24 Keys to Work Correctly on HP Laptops

April 25, 2012 Joe Hertvik

Today’s tip comes from my own experience with a recent model HP Pavilion laptop that I use for my business. The problem occurred when I loaded up the PC5250 emulator software that comes with System i Access for Windows V6R1M0. I attached to and signed on to my production IBM i box with PC5250, executed a green-screen command, and hit the F3 key to exit the screen.

Nothing happened.

The F3 key didn’t work. Neither did F5, F10, F12, or any other F-key from F1 all the way up to F24. My PC5250 F-keys were dead.

Experimenting with different keystroke

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A Philosophically Engineered Approach to the Processing of Parameters

April 18, 2012 Ted Holt

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

Too often we humans give little thought to what we do or why we do it, even though taking an organized approach to an activity has its advantages. In this article, I present one approach to the handling of parameters in programs and tell why I consider this a good way to process parameters.

Parameters are data that are supplied to a program in order to affect the way it behaves. For example, the ability to supply file names, member names, and various options to the Copy File

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Have Your Cake and Eat It, Too

April 18, 2012 Hey, Ted

I did not take your suggestion to write a subprocedure and embed it in a service program. It seemed like too much trouble to me. I wrote a program instead. It does the trick and it’s a lot less complicated than all those hoops you told me to jump through. I guess ILE isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

–Chuck

Chuck presented me with a problem. I suggested he write a subprocedure to solve it. He didn’t like the idea of creating a module, writing binder language, creating a service program from the module, adding the service program to

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Admin Alert: Planning An i 6.1 Upgrade

April 18, 2012 Joe Hertvik

As of this writing, my staff and I are preparing to upgrade the first of three System i 550 partitions from i5/OS V5R4 to i 6.1 on April 14. In an earlier article, I discussed getting started with a 6.1 upgrade. As a case study, this issue I’ll go over the planning process for actually performing the upgrade by reviewing my planning process for an actual IBM i partition.

Completing The Pre-Upgrade Tasks

At this point, we’ve completed most of the heavy lifting needed to perform the upgrade. With our Applications group, we’ve gone through and corrected all system

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Index Advisor, Part 2

April 11, 2012 Paul Tuohy

In part 1 of this series, I introduced you to the basic functionality of Index Advisor. In this article, we will take a look at more of the options and functionality available with Index Advisor for Systems Director Navigator for i.

More Options

Apart from the obvious information (table and schema names), the Index Advisor window also gives us some pertinent information, such as:

The advised key
The first and last time the index was advised
The number of times the index was advised
The longest and average execution times for the queries that generated the index advise
The

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Interpreted CL Members, Take 2

April 11, 2012 Ted Holt

Once again, the alert and astute readers of this august publication have proven true the old adage that multiple methods exist for removing the outer covering of a feline animal. Several of you wrote in response to my article, Interpreted CL Members, to share other methods of running CL commands in interpreted mode. Here are some of the comments I received.

I use REXX to handle scripting for CL commands. While I’m not an expert, I’ve found it useful for tasks that you do at a command line to set up something, do over and over, and forget the

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What Happened to My QFileSvr.400 Connection?

April 11, 2012 Hey, Joe

I set up a QFileSvr.400 connection for accessing AS/400 Integrated File Systems (AS/400 IFS) objects on another IBM i machine. I use it several times a month to transfer files. All of a sudden, the connection stopped working and I have no clue why. Do you have any idea what could happened and how I can fix it?

–Bob

As I’ve written before, I love using QFileSvr.400 for accessing, modifying, and copying or moving files between two IBM i systems (Power i, System i, and iSeries). A QFileSvr.400 link is incredibly easy to set up. All you have to do

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Index Advisor, Part 1

April 4, 2012 Paul Tuohy

The use of SQL within our applications is on the increase. After a shaky start in the early days of the AS/400, SQL has gone from strength to strength with every release of the operating system.

The use of embedded SQL (in RPG) stabilized with V5R1 and really came into its own when free-form SQL was introduced in V5R4 and PTFed back to V5R3.

But with SQL, and embedded SQL especially, there is always that lingering doubt about SQL performance when accessing data. We have all heard horror stories about the lights in the building dimming when a certain program

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Cut the Gordian Knot

April 4, 2012 Hey, Ted

I just love those BIFs that IBM added to RPG. I can’t understand why anybody would use old RPG op codes instead of the BIFs. But I’ve run into a brick wall with %SUBST. Help!

–Vince

Allow me to explain Vince’s situation. He was assigned to revise a program someone else had written. The program reads a list of the file names in a certain directory on their network, and has to do other processing depending on file name extension (the part of the name following the last period).

Here’s a program similar to the one that Vince had to

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