• SQL Implicit Cast of Character Strings and Numeric Values

  June 22, 2011 Skip Marchesani

  Awhile back I was teaching an SQL class in Fargo, North Dakota. During one of the afternoon lab sessions, one of the students asked if he could use the CONCAT function on two numbers, or two numeric columns, without first casting them to character values. I knew the answer was “No”, and that the numeric values had to be cast to character first before the student concatenated them together. Instead of just giving the student the answer, I played good teacher and I told the student to try it and let me know how it worked. Imaging my surprise when

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• Forcing Keyword Parameters

  June 22, 2011 Ted Holt

  Programming languages use two conventions for passing arguments (commonly referred to as parameters) to a called routine. Some languages use positional parameters. That is, the parameters must be passed to the routine in a certain order. The other (and less error-prone) method is to password parameters in keyword format. IBM i allows you to force callers to use keyword format–to a point–when they use your CL commands. Here’s how. But first, let’s review the two major problems inherent in positional parameters. First, it is easy to get a parameter value into the wrong position. Take the following OCL command for

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• Admin Alert: Things to Think About in a Power i Development Environment

  June 22, 2011 Joe Hertvik

  Working in both public and private companies during my career, I’ve been subjected to my share of IT audits. My impression is that while auditors are usually very savvy about your production environment, there are other issues that maybe they should be looking at but don’t. If your production environment is in tip-top shape, audit-wise, here are some other things you might consider looking at to avoid trouble. Why Aren’t Auditors More Interested in Development Environment Infrastructure? Not to give anyone ideas, but I’ve always wondered why auditors don’t investigate development environments as seriously as they audit production environments. After

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• ILE: Decisions, Decisions, Part 1

  June 8, 2011 Susan Gantner

  I’ve been working with and teaching people about ILE for many years. There are a few questions that come up again and again. So I thought I’d cover my responses in some tips. In this tip, the subject is binding directories. I’m often asked about the best way to use binding directories and/or how many binding directories I recommend. My philosophy is to keep things as simple as possible for the developers. I believe that ILE’s value is in making development more efficient by making it easy to develop and use your own application functions that you can use as

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• Write PDM Scans to Database Files

  June 8, 2011 Ted Holt

  Note: The code accompanying this article is available for download here. My shop licenses a documentation package that tells us all sorts of useful information, such as which programs use which files and which programs call which programs. Nevertheless, we still use PDM string searches to search source code. I wrote a utility that makes such searches more powerful. Maybe you’ll find it beneficial. How To Search Using PDM You have two ways to search source code with PDM. You can use option 25 from the WRKOBJPDM and WRKMBRPDM displays, or you can use the Find String Using PDM

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• Admin Alert: Things I Learned from My Latest Power i Upgrade

  June 8, 2011 Joe Hertvik

  Over Memorial Day weekend in the U.S.A., we finished completing two Power i 720 hardware upgrades for a regular client. While the machine installation was relatively easy, I thought it would be helpful to discuss some of the problems, opportunities, and general time wasters that accompanied our migration to the latest Power i hardware, hoping that my experience will help others with their own hardware upgrades. Cutting Hardware and Acquisition Costs Before you buy your machines, make sure you’re not leaving any money on the table. Check if you are eligible for migration assistance from IBM. For many System

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• Finding Duplicate Rows in a Name and Address Table

  May 25, 2011 Skip Marchesani

  Many companies still use the U.S. Postal Service to mail promotional and marketing materials to existing and potential customers. With rising printing expenses and postal rates, it’s important to minimize waste by identifying and eliminating duplicate rows in name and address tables. However, these tables can present some interesting challenges. For instance, the following two addresses are duplicates, but how do you identify them as potential duplicate rows? John Sampson Dickerson Mutual Ins. 218 Bridge St., Suite 257 New York, NY 12345 John Samson Dickerson Insurance 218 Bridge Street NYC, NY 12345 Companies can write their own software, which has

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• Asserting the Ostensibly Unassertable

  May 25, 2011 Hey, Ted

  Assertions are great for validating conditions that can be tested with IF, DOW, SELECT, etc., but what about other types of conditions? For instance, can I use an assertion to test that a variable contains valid decimal data? –A Nice Lady (I’m sorry. A nice lady asked me this question in person and I forgot her name.) Yes, it is possible to check for conditions that one cannot test with conditional OPCODES such as IF, but you must use a different method. When something goes amiss, the system loads a five-digit, zoned-decimal status code with a non-zero value. You can

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• Admin Alert: Other Options for a Post-Upgrade Backup

  May 25, 2011 Joe Hertvik

  In an earlier column, I wrote about how administrators can save time after an i operating system upgrade by performing a Save System (SAVSYS) backup instead of a full system save. Several readers wrote in with more information and system information backup tips. Let’s look at what they had to say about post-upgrade backups and what we can learn from them. A Better Post-Upgrade Backup Strategy Pete Massiello of iTech Solutions wrote in with the best suggestion for post-upgrade backups when he said: I perform many upgrades, and I tell my customers that the best option, if time permits,

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• An Introduction to Python on IBM i, Part 3

  May 18, 2011 Garry Taylor

  Note: The code accompanying this article is available for download here. Guido Van Rossum, creator of Python, once said, “Python is an experiment in how much freedom programmers need. Too much freedom and nobody can read another’s code; too little and expressiveness is endangered.” In this third part of our introduction to Python on our faithful IBM i, you’ll learn how to use the expressiveness of Python while still keeping your code readable. This will be achieved by creating classes to represent our data in a clean and manageable fashion. You have likely heard of classes and object from

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