• New OLAP Aggregate Functions In DB2 For i, Part 2

  July 19, 2016 Michael Sansoterra

  In my last article, I promised to tell you about four new OLAP aggregate functions: FIRST_VALUE, LAST_VALUE, nTH_VALUE and RATIO_TO_REPORT. These valuable functions can reference data from other rows in a query result set relative to the current row. This tip covers the fourth function in the list, RATIO_TO_REPORT. The RATIO_TO_REPORT Function The new RATIO_TO_REPORT function is heaven sent, as it makes it easy for developers to avoid writing an UGLY arithmetic expression to do a simple calculation common in business. RATIO_TO_REPORT simply divides a numeric column or expression value in the current row by a SUM aggregate of

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• A Generic Character Editing Routine

  July 12, 2016 Jon Paris

  Note: The code accompanying this article is available for download here. Recently I was asked if I knew of a way to edit character strings. For example, take a character string representing a product code such as “AX12345Q” and edit it to produce “AX-123-45 Q”. My initial reaction was to reach for an edit word, but sadly they only work for numerics, for some strange reason. I set about building a subprocedure that offered the necessary flexibility in insert characters and also added a few “defenses” against mismatched parameters. Before describing the code, let’s look at the prototype for

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• Formatting Dates With SQL, Take 3

  July 12, 2016 Ted Holt

  This story contains code, which you can download here.   I love it when someone improves something I’ve produced. In this case, that someone was Barry Arnold, an A-1COBOL programmer with whom I had the privilege to work once upon a time. Barry improved my FMTDATE SQL function for use in his shop. Maybe his enhancement will help you, too. Barry’s shop, like many others, must deal with data from many different sources, and that data is often formatted in ways that are not conducive to RPG and COBOL programming. Barry found himself having to de-edit character dates before

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• New OLAP Aggregate Functions In DB2 for i, Part 1

  July 12, 2016 Michael Sansoterra

  In my last tips about the new OLAP features in DB2 for i 7.3, I discussed the OLAP Aggregation Specification and the new LAG and LEAD OLAP functions. In this article and the next one, I continue the discussion of new OLAP features by highlighting four new OLAP aggregate functions: FIRST_VALUE, LAST_VALUE, nTH_VALUE, and RATIO_TO_REPORT. The value of these functions is that they can reference data from other rows in a query result set relative to the current row. The new OLAP aggregate functions differ from normal aggregate functions (such as MIN, MAX, SUM, and AVG) in that they can

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• What Price Power (Eight And Maybe Nine)?

  July 11, 2016 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Call me old school if you want, but I believe in Moore’s Law and I believe that IT vendors have to keep giving customers more bang for the buck if they want organizations to keep investing in technology. There are basically only two levers to help push a new technology into the market, and that is increasing the performance of a device or lowering its price, the latter hopefully occurring if the cost of production comes down but sometimes not as vendors seek to maximize their profits and make it up with performance leaps. This has certainly been the case

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• IBM i Skills Shortage A Barrier To Digital Transformation

  July 11, 2016 Alex Woodie

  Quick–what’s the top barrier to achieving digital transformation in your shop? If you said “IBM i skills,” then you’re in good company. In a recent informal poll conducted by SoftLanding Systems, a majority of IBM i professionals cited a lack of IBM i skills (taken to mean RPG programming expertise in particular) as the number one impediment to implementing projects such as development of Web and mobile interfaces and electronic document management. SoftLanding operations manager Jim Fisher admitted that he wasn’t expecting a lack of IBM i skills to be the number one answer to a question about barriers

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• IBM i Open Sourcerers

  July 11, 2016 Dan Burger

  Who will inherit the IBM i? And what will that business computer look like? My crystal ball is in the shop, so I’ll have to rely on what is currently going on and make some projections based on that. Collaboration would seem to be the key. Even without my crystal ball, I see new technologies being explored and applied. For IBM i to be relevant to future generations, open source software and the collaboration with other innovation teams needs to take place. Development of the IBM i platform is not happening on its own island anymore. It’s an integrated world.

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• Cloud-Based Email Migrations Keep IBM i Vendor Busy

  July 11, 2016 Dan Burger

  As more businesses migrate email services from desktops to the cloud, users at IBM i shops look for the tools that allow them to work quickly, efficiently, and securely. You can’t stay mired in the past. You have to adapt. That’s what BVSTools has done with its latest enhancement of GreenTools, which integrate with Microsoft Office 365’s Outlook and Google‘s Gmail for Business, two popular business email options. “We are noticing a lot of our current customers, when moving to the cloud for email, are choosing Microsoft Office 365 in greater numbers than those using Google’s Gmail for Business

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• Maxava Opens Up Bidding For iFoundation Grants

  July 11, 2016 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  For the sixth year running now, high availability software maker Maxava is putting its money where its mouth is in the IBM i community and donating a big bag of cash through its Maxava iFoundation to causes that benefit the maintenance and expansion of the IBM i community. Maxava launched its first iFoundation grants back in April 2011, promising to pay up to $50,000, in increments of up to $2,000 a pop, to organizations in the IBM i community that could use a little extra help in fulfilling their missions. Every little bit helps, in the first year $45,000

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• Power Systems GM Weights In On AS/400 Birthday

  June 27, 2016 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Any business unit within a conglomerate as vast and changing as fast as Big Blue needs to have a strong advocate as well as core financial performance that contributes to both the top and bottom line. The good news about the IBM i platform is that it has such a strong advocate in Doug Balog, general manager of the Power Systems business for the past several years. While Balog has been instrumental in pushing Linux on Power and putting together the OpenPower Foundation that is seeking to expand the Power ecosystem beyond the walls of IBM, he has not

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