• Yet Another Super-Easy Way to Copy a Spooled File from One Partition to Another

  April 21, 2010 Hey, Ted

  I saw the tip Another Super-Easy Way to Copy a Spooled File from One Machine to Another and wanted to add to the discussion. In our shop, we have one machine with two partitions–one for production, one for testing and development. On the production system, we have a TEST outq. On the test system, we have a PROD outq. Sending spooled files from one machine to the other is a simple matter of using the CHGSPLF command (option 2 from panels that display spool files) to change the outq name. The CL we used to create the output queues is

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• More on Whether IPLs Help System Performance

  April 21, 2010 Hey, Joe

  In your article on IPLing for system performance, you stated that it’s difficult to find a definitive listing of all the steps that i/OS performs during an IPL. Here’s a link to an older list of IPL status progress codes. While it’s not the most up-to-date list, it should give you a good idea of what’s happening during an IPL. –Dave Flint Thanks, Dave. The only problem I saw with your link was that it only references the C6xx xxxx IPL status codes, which only tells part of the IPL status code story. Many IPL status codes

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• Query Control

  April 14, 2010 Paul Tuohy

  Query is the system killer. The lights dim. The system slows to a crawl. It must be a user running an interactive query. Enough! No more interactive query for users–we are removing the *INTERACT option on the ALLOW parameter on the RUNQRY command. Sound familiar? This extreme reaction of disabling interactive query is both unnecessary and, to be blunt, downright unfair to users. By disabling interactive queries, you also disable the ability to use the F5 (Report) key in Query, which is probably the most used function. And that, in turn, gets users into the frame of mind that, if

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• Update One File Based on Another File

  April 14, 2010 Ted Holt

  It’s not uncommon to have to update one file based on data found in another file. In fact, it’s a very common requirement, due to the way that data is “normalized” in relational database management systems. When only one field links the two files–the file that is being updated and the file that contains the search criteria–the SQL syntax is simple. But joining on two or more fields requires more challenging syntax. Here’s an example of an update when only one field joins the two files. I add a week to the scheduled ship date of orders of type B

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• Admin Alert: Some Simple Ideas for Getting the Best System i Lease

  April 14, 2010 Joe Hertvik

  Buying a new Power i machine can be complicated. Not only do you have to correctly size everything for future growth, you also have to purchase the hardware, software, and maintenance at a reasonable price. And if your organization wants to lease its new machine, you may wind up scratching your head wondering just what those leasing numbers mean, or if your organization is being taken advantage of. This issue, I’ll describe a way to approach a new lease, such that you can put yourself in a better bargaining position and better understand how the leasing company is pricing your

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• Variable Procedure Calls in Free-Format RPG

  March 31, 2010 Jon Paris

  Note: The code accompanying this article is available for download here. In my previous tip, I detailed the prototyping technique required to enable program calls in free-format RPG to use a variable to control the target program. These days, most modern RPGers make extensive use of subprocedures, so can the same techniques be applied to procedure calls? The simple answer is “yes,” but the technique is slightly more complex than that used for program calls. The reason for this is unlike program calls, procedure calls normally have to be resolved at program creation time, i.e., during the binding

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• Global Temporary Tables and Host Variables

  March 31, 2010 Ted Holt

  Global temporary tables are a marvelous, powerful feature of SQL, allowing SQL programmers to create temporary tables as needed in order to build complex queries. One problem you will encounter occurs when you want to use a host variable within a program to limit the amount of data loaded into the table. You may not use a host variable in a Declare Global Temporary Table command. Fortunately, this is an easy limitation to circumvent. First, let’s look at an example of the problem. In the following code fragment, I attempt to create a global temporary table using data for one

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• Implementing 128-Character Passphrases in i/OS

  March 31, 2010 Hey, Joe

  To satisfy regulatory requirements, we must change our i/OS password strategy so that the system accepts up to 128-character passphrases using any keyboard character, including spaces. We currently use 10-character passwords. How do I make this change? –Len It’s easy to activate passphrases on iSeries, System i, and Power i systems. For readers not familiar with the concept, a passphrase refers to a password scheme that allows for very long passwords with few restrictions on character content. Setting up passphrase support on an i/OS or OS/400 partition requires you to change the following three system values. 1. Password level (QPWDLVL)

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• Using UNION for Data Analysis

  March 24, 2010 Skip Marchesani

  To do a quick review of my previous article, UNION is very useful when an SQL statement or query must operate on two or more tables and JOIN cannot be used to produce the desired result set table. For example, if you have multiple history tables–one for each specific time period (year, month, week, etc.), and their record formats are similar and compatible, a union is a good way to query and combine two or more of these tables to derive a single, final result set table using SQL. Several months ago, a friend sent me the spreadsheet shown

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• Include C Utilities in Your Developer Library: Evaluating a Mathematical String Expression

  March 24, 2010 Michael Sansoterra

  Most i programmers have a library of RPG or COBOL utilities they’ve written or filched from another source. Having a library of samples and pre-built code is a great productivity booster. However, have you ever considered adding C and C++ code to your library? You don’t know C? Big deal. If you have the C compiler loaded on your i, there’s an abundance of C and C++ code out there on the internet just waiting for you to discover. Plus, if you’re well versed in ILE concepts, you may be further along the C path than you think. Consider this

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