Copying multiple IFS files into one output file

This us another post that came from a question I was asked by a reader of this blog. The question is:

I have multiple files in an IFS folder with similar names, each has a timestamp at the end of the file name to make them unique. How can I read all the files and write the contents into one file?

Fortunately there are two SQL Table Functions that can help me do this:

• IFS_OBJECT_STATISTICS:  To make a list of the files
• IFS_READ:  Read the contents of the files

The rest is pretty straightforward SQL and RPG.

35th anniversary of IBM i

There has been lots of publicity in the build up to today, and I thought I would add my thoughts on the 35th anniversary of IBM i. That is a little misnomer as the server that was launched on June 21, 1988, was called AS/400, IBM Application System/400, which ran the OS/400, Operating System/400, operating system. Over the intervening years both the server and the operating system have been enhanced to be so much more than AS/400 / OS/400, becoming a thoroughly modern server, IBM Power, and operating system, IBM i.

As this is an anniversary I am not going to talk about the future of IBM Power and IBM i, which is "golden", I am going to write about the history of this.

Getting Save File information with SQL

Added to our SQL "toolkit" with the latest round of Technology Refreshes, IBM i 7.5 TR2 and 7.4 TR8, were two Views and a Table function that helps me get information about Save Files, and their contents.

Prior to these if I wanted to know how many save files I have in my library I would use the Work Object PDM command, WRKOBJPDM:

WRKOBJPDM LIB(MYLIB) OBJTYPE(*FILE) OBJATR(*SAVF)

RPG %SPLIT now handles blank sub-strings

When it was introduced in IBM i 7.4 I thought the Split built in function, BiF, would be useful way to break apart a string into pieces. The one frustration I had with it was when two separators were next to one another %SPLIT would not regard it as an empty, or null, sub-string.

Let me jump straight into my RPG program to demonstrate how this works. Let me start with all the definitions, etc.

01 **free 02 dcl-s String varchar(100) inz('RED,,BLUE,,GREEN,,,BLACK') ; 03 dcl-s Piece char(10) ; 04 dcl-s Array char(10) dim(*auto:999) ;

It has been a decade!

Saturday was the tenth year anniversary of this web site. IMHO that is a remarkable milestone. I have seen other IBM i related web sites and YouTube channels come and go in that time, as people do not appreciate the effort it takes to research, write, and publish content on a regular basis. I am not sure how long I thought I would write, I guess it was until there was nothing more about IBM i to write about. Fortunately IBM has obliged and this decade has seen more additions and changes to our favorite operating system than any other. Long may it continue.

Mass insert into IFS file using IFS_WRITE

There are times when someone asks me a question I think is interesting enough to become a post here. This was the question that was the germ for this post:

How can I read a physical file and for each records, use the IFS_WRITE Function to write the [ IFS ] file?

The IFS_WRITE are really three SQL procedures that writes data to a file in the IFS:

1. IFS_WRITE:  Write plain text to IFS file
2. IFS_WRITE_UTF8:  Write UTF8 text
3. IFS_WRITE_BINARY:  Write binary text

In the following examples I am going to use IFS_WRITE_UTF8 as I want the contents of the IFS file to be UTF8 compatible.

Remove the need for procedure prototypes

This is another example of something in RPG that almost slipped by me. I now have a way not to have to define a procedure prototype in the procedures' member. All I need is the procedure, and the RPG compiler does its "magic" to do what ever it does to make this possible. This is made possible by the addition of a new control option and parameter in the procedure declaration.

The addition to the control option is a new option REQPREXP, which allows one of three values:

• *REQUIRE:  All procedures are required to have a prototype (DCL-PR)
• *WARN:  If a prototype is not found for a procedure a warning error, severity 10, is received when compiled
• *NO:  Procedure prototype is not required for the main and exported procedures

Another study shows the benefits of IBM i

Forrester Consulting was commissioned by IBM to perform an assessment of the benefits of the IBM i operating system. The result was one of Forrester's trademark "Total Economic Impact" assessments, determining the cost savings and business benefits of using IBM i.

The report can be read by clicking on this link here.

I have already downloaded and emailed this to my Vice President and CIO to reinforce the benefits of continuing to enhance our IBM i strategy.

If you work amongst naysayers who keep saying "The AS400 is dead", this would be a useful document to have and share with your management to show that IBM i needs to remain part of your employer's business strategy.

Using TO_CHAR to format timestamps

I use the SQL scalar function TO_CHAR all of the time to format numbers, inserting thousand separator characters. I can also use it for formatting timestamps.

In the following examples I am going to show how easy this, and it appears to duplicate a lot of the functionality of the EXTRACT scalar function.

In these examples I am going to show what I can do with a timestamp column, TIMESTAMP1, in a SQL DDL table, TESTTABLE.

Let me show you some examples of what I can do.

Why do my SQL results show pointer?

At least one a month I get a question that is something like this:

My SQL results do not look like yours, mine have the word pointer in them. Why?

This gives you away as someone who is still using the old Start SQL command, STRSQL, interface in your 5250 emulator session, rather than Access Client Solutions' Run SQL Scripts. I am pretty sure that the vast majority of us are using ACS for our 5250 "green screen" sessions, so why are you still using STRSQL when Run SQL Scripts is there too?

Latest Db2 and RPG TR PTFs out today

In the IBM i world does "Christmas" come twice a year when the PTFs for the Spring and Fall Technology Refreshes are delivered? I think so!

Today the PTFs for Db2 (SQL) and RPG are released for the latest Technology Refreshes, IBM i 7.5 TR2 and 7.4 TR8.

The base operating system PTFs for these TRs became available on the May 8, 2023, but they did not include any of the changes and enhancements to Db2/Database or RPG.

Capturing errors within ON-EXIT

Having been busy recently performing presentations to various user groups and conferences I noticed an oversight in my work. In my presentations I had given an example of using the ON-EXIT group showing how I can use an indicator to indicate if an error had occurred in the procedure or subprocedure. In my post, on this website, about ON-EXIT I only mentioned it in passing. In this post I want to overcome oversight to show how I can do this.

The ON-EXIT group can be added to the end of every procedure or subprocedure in a RPG program. Regardless of whether the procedure or subprocedures errors or not, the code within the ON-EXIT group is always executed.

Let me start with my first example program, this one does not have any procedures or subprocedures: