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Tips and Techniques: EXTFILE and EXTMBR

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  • Tips and Techniques: EXTFILE and EXTMBR

    ** This thread discusses the article: Tips and Techniques: EXTFILE and EXTMBR **
    ** This thread discusses the Content article: Tips and Techniques: EXTFILE and EXTMBR **
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  • #2
    Tips and Techniques: EXTFILE and EXTMBR

    ** This thread discusses the article: Tips and Techniques: EXTFILE and EXTMBR **
    One of the ways this is very helpful is in the conversion from System/36 RPG II to native code. Very often the file name in the program would have nothing whatsoever to do with the actual file name. And worse, the real file name may contain an embedded dot, making it impossible to specify in the file specs. These keywords now make it easier to convert older programs to native code using externally described files, without having to rename the actual file. Dave

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    • #3
      Tips and Techniques: EXTFILE and EXTMBR

      ** This thread discusses the article: Tips and Techniques: EXTFILE and EXTMBR **
      I have been using this function for four years now and can not survive in my present company that seems to take over small guys every other day. Unfortunately the basic design of the system keeps files on different boxes for different markets probably from a safety, security and reliability point. So all we can do for central BI is to create DDMs in different libraries that contain market name in their name. Then we can concatenate library name based on the library and then open/close the files. Unfortunately SQL does not work on DDM files and I need to do some research to see how SQL would be more friendly on remote files. The CONNECT statement needs to be smoother. Anyone uses embedded SQL for remote files here? Can I have some sample code?

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      • #4
        Tips and Techniques: EXTFILE and EXTMBR

        ** This thread discusses the article: Tips and Techniques: EXTFILE and EXTMBR **
        I don't know if you are the son of Bob Cozzi, nevertheless this was one of the most handy articles I've seen so far. easy, simple and yet so damn usefull. One of my most asked questions is the following : what will this do with performance ? if you do an open, I guess you will need to (re)create the access path. and what about the external definitions? this is probably the most important. I've never used this method nor an OVRDBF (yes I'm a newbie to this and will trial/error it tomorrow). but does the 'new' file has to have the same definitions as the original file? thanks very much!

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        • #5
          Tips and Techniques: EXTFILE and EXTMBR

          ** This thread discusses the article: Tips and Techniques: EXTFILE and EXTMBR **
          these are good keywords to know about but at our company we always have to use the overrides in the CL's as an standard for overrides and stuff. So, any new development using IFS can be done using these keywords. Thanks Farhan Qadri[file name=6b388637_1f5d.jpg size=24]http://www.mcpressonline.com/images/fbfiles/files/6b388637_1f5d.jpg[/file]

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          • #6
            Tips and Techniques: EXTFILE and EXTMBR

            ** This thread discusses the article: Tips and Techniques: EXTFILE and EXTMBR **
            No. You can't use EXTFILE and EXTMBR with IFS files. And putting overrides into CL if the only thing needed is a redirect to another file, library or member is a performance hit vs EXTFILE and EXTMBR. But this isn't one of those "do it this way or your wrong" debates like we seem to have with /free vs traditional RPG. I am of the mindset that moving away from CL has been a long time coming and most people are doing that. Nearly everyone I talk to seems to be either avoiding CL or only maintaining existing CL--not writing new CL. And that's fine with me.

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            • #7
              Tips and Techniques: EXTFILE and EXTMBR

              ** This thread discusses the article: Tips and Techniques: EXTFILE and EXTMBR **
              "Good keywords but...". Unfortunately the butt factor is typpical of legacy shops where the I.T. top man is a man who started his career in S/34 etc. He has not kept up with the latest development in his field as he is too busy in corporate politics. Then he is also not willing to let go his technical control. So he would prefer things the legacy way. He is totally opposite to the I.T. Manager who graduated from a school not long ago and wants to throw away AS/400. Neither of these extremist managers believe in transition. One believes in sticking to it until he is kicked out. The other wants to kill the AS400 right away and reinvent the wheel. Ultimately he also gets kicked out as he exceeds his budget without producing anything. As Bob mentioned, it has been a long long time that good developers started moving more and more away from CL and more and more into programming. The reasons are obvious. CL is developing at snails pace whereas RPG developed by leaps and bounds in the past decade (slow again for the past few years). Furthermore, this approach would help in transition. There are other factors also. In my present shop, my supervisor was also a legacy man who believed that RPG should do only what CL can not. The reason was obvious. He was not good in RPG. He started off as an operator and progressed all the way up. The system was so buggy that QA never ceritified it. Finally management decided to fire him and told me to rewrite everything and get certified by QA.

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              • #8
                Tips and Techniques: EXTFILE and EXTMBR

                ** This thread discusses the article: Tips and Techniques: EXTFILE and EXTMBR **
                well most probably I'm gonna be one of those "legacy" guys one day. I try not to though. nevertheless I like CL for its simplicity if you have to do simple things. I don't know if you follow is*r**sn*tw*rk.com but I posted a question on there. I had to list all PF, *JRNRCV and SAVF on the system. using an API in either CL or RPG took way too long because the fact was I needed the size (which is only available in the most extensive format). so I tried numerous things. and one thing actually did work. an DSPOBJD, put it in an outfile and filtering out all junk with a simple SQL string. and then do a CPYF of each result into the same file from different jobs. that's why I try to read as much articles from mr. cozzi as possible, because he knows a lot about API's. I also realise once you defined all of your prototypes you most use in a copyfile it's just a matter of reusing them. I like API's for their performance, but sometimes it's just simpler to use some CL. don't forget especially you guys are paid a lot, and development costs also count. but like I said, I'm just a newbie trying to learn. it might have something to do because I always wrote assembly before... if I can ask another question : what's the main difference between EXTFILE and EXTNAME? as far as I can see, with EXTNAME you can choose between different formats. but that's about it. why would you choose one or another? thank you very much for the responses!!

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                • #9
                  Tips and Techniques: EXTFILE and EXTMBR

                  ** This thread discusses the article: Tips and Techniques: EXTFILE and EXTMBR **
                  I started my career in an Assembler shop and my job was to kill the Assembler. My temp job lasted only a few months but I did killed all Assembler programs converting them to Cobol. I resisted RPGii as much as I could and insisted on Cobol. I did not resist RPGiii but killed it as soon as RPGiv came, that is to say wherever they let me do so. Now I kill fixed format RPGiv with /free wherever I am allowed to. I do use CL wherever I can't replace it with RPG because like you, I do not know all the APIs well enough. Someday, I hope to catch up with Cozzi on APIs. Someday! You will become a legacy guy the day you will start thinking legacy. It is a state of mind, age has nothing to do with it

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                  • #10
                    Tips and Techniques: EXTFILE and EXTMBR

                    ** This thread discusses the article: Tips and Techniques: EXTFILE and EXTMBR **
                    I wrap CL around most major programs. I have never used an API. It seems to be cool here or something but other than that I have never had any need to use anything other than CL statements implementing the beauty of OS/400 architecture. Also, concerning the syntax stuff, I believe consistency far outweighs any advantages gained by adding new programs in a supposedly superior style. I program in RPG IV eval style. I can and do drop in and out of RPG/400 and /free programs in any given day, as I'm sure most of us do. But columnar RPG is just a lot easier to follow for me than indented. Maybe that's because I was also an assembler programmer before this. I do indent in Java and other freeform languages, and in /free if that is the predominant style for the system I'm working on. In any event, I think good OS/400 business systems require CL setup around each major RPG system to use this system elegantly. But again, very little in the way of opinions on this site except for a few seem to bear any resemblance to the reality I've experienced. rd

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                    • #11
                      Tips and Techniques: EXTFILE and EXTMBR

                      ** This thread discusses the article: Tips and Techniques: EXTFILE and EXTMBR **
                      Can we use EXTMBR keyword to seriall process , multiple members of a database file, using USROPN keyword and OPEN & CLOSE opcodes. ??

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                      • #12
                        Tips and Techniques: EXTFILE and EXTMBR

                        ** This thread discusses the article: Tips and Techniques: EXTFILE and EXTMBR **
                        Yes, use '*ALL' as the member name. Chris

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