Did you know that there are PTFs that can give you some 7.1 performance benefits even if you're still on 6.1?

Written by Kent Milligan

One of the benefits of having a single integrated relational database in the IBM i operating system is that developers can freely mix and match different database interfaces. Database objects created with SQL can be accessed using the native record-level access interfaces. And database files created with Data Definition Specifications (DDS) can be accessed from SQL interfaces. There are a few exceptions, but this interface flexibility holds true most of the time.

Leverage DB2 Web Query and SQL client special registers.

Written by Gene Cobb

In V6R1 of the IBM i operating system, support was added for the specification (and subsequent retrieval) of several new special registers that applications can use to identify what jobs, users, programs, and applications are issuing SQL statements to the DB2 for i engine. Currently, there are five such registers you can use:

Find out how to transform and extract data and learn the options for saving the output.

Written by Kent Milligan

As the numbers of applications systems and interfaces continues to grow, many IBM i developers face the challenge of getting their DB2 for i data into the right format to meet the requirements of these new interfaces. The format types range can from XML to comma-separated values (CSV) to fixed-file formats.

SQL is a great language to use in these situations.

Have you been memorizing field names or relying on F4 prompting?

Written by Steven Goetjen

When creating file joins using interactive SQL (STRSQL), it's sometimes difficult to remember the field names that you want to join. I typically don't memorize field names and totally rely on the F4 prompting to get the names from the "SELECT fields" line.

With a recent V6R1 PTF, SQL stored procedures can now benefit from the improved performance offered by IBM i service program objects.

By Kent Milligan

The usage of SQL stored procedures by IBM i applications and programs continues to rise. For quite awhile, applications have had the ability to leverage the performance benefits offered by IBM i service program objects.

With a recent V6R1 PTF, SQL stored procedures can now benefit from the improved performance offered by IBM i service program objects. When an SQL stored procedure is created, DB2 for i generates and creates an ILE C program object to implement the business logic specified by the programmer. For example, when the following procedure is created, it will result in DB2 generating an ILE C program object (*PGM) named ADD_PGM in the QGPL library.  Whenever an application invokes the ADD_PGM, DB2 will transparently call the generated C program object.