Find a character pattern within a variable.
Written by Bruce Vining
Last month, in "A CL Command to Scan for Characters," we built the command Scan Characters (SCNCHR). The SCNCHR command returns the position of the first character within a CL variable that is found in a list of search-for values. This month, we'll look at how to provide a Scan String (SCNSTR) command.
Find characters within a variable.
Written by Bruce Vining
Last month, in "A CL-Based Implementation of RPG Built-in %Check," we built the command Check Characters (CHKCHR). The CHKCHR command returns the position of the first character within a CL variable that is not found within a list of valid values. Based on reader requests, this month we'll look at how to implement a Scan Characters (SCNCHR) command. The SCNCHR command will return the position of the first character within a CL variable that is found in a list of valid values.
Find characters that don't belong!
Written by Bruce Vining
I recently received the following from Wayne R.: "I use RPG's %CHECK function to check if any characters are not valid. Is there something similar in CL?" RPG's %Check built-in, if you're not familiar with it, returns the first position in a variable that contains a character that is not in a list of valid characters. If, for instance, you had a variable with a value of 'cabbage', then comparing this to a list of valid values such as 'abc' would return a position value of 6. This is due to the sixth character (the "g") not being in the list of valid values ('abc'). If all characters in the variable are found in the valid character list, %Check returns a position value of 0. While CL currently does not have a built-in such as RPG's %Check, you will see it's not that difficult to create a CL command to provide this function for programming our IBM i—and in fact that's what we'll do in today's article.
Take advantage of being able to join files with SQL.
Written by Bruce Vining
Last month, in "Run-Time Selection Using the RUNSQL CL Command," we saw how to build an SQL statement on the fly, selecting specific records/rows from the file/table SAMPLE. In this article, we'll look at how to combine information across files using the RUNSQL CL command. But before combining information, we first need to define that information, which will be accessed external to the file SAMPLE.
Build the RUNSQL SQL statement on the fly.
Written by Bruce Vining
Last month, in "More on the RUNSQL CL Command," we saw how to select specific records from the SAMPLE database using the RUNSQL command. In that article, we hardcoded the selection criteria of Effective date (EffDate) being earlier than May 1, 2012. This month, we'll look at how to allow a user to interactively specify the Class, Status, and EffDate year values that the user is interested in. This will include the ability for the user to also ignore (that is, not select on) any one or more of these three fields/columns.
Who writes the commands that IBM forgot to write?
Written by Mike Faust
Every now and then, I think that there are functions that IBM simply forgot to provide. One example is the inability to do a command like DSPPGM for all programs in a given library. I recently had a need for exactly this functionality. It seemed like a perfect opportunity to create a new utility. In this tip, I'll show you the GETPGMINFO utility.
Generate a report from your database using CL.
Written by Bruce Vining
Last month, in "Using the SQL Select Statement with RUNSQL," we reviewed how to query, or select, data from a SAMPLE database (also created in the referenced article). In last month's program, we simply displayed, using the CL command Send Program Message (SNDPGMMSG), the results of an SQL Select as shown below.
Would you like to query your database from CL?
Written by Bruce Vining
Last month, in "Introducing the New Run SQL Command," we reviewed how you could insert, update, and delete rows/records in a database using the RUNSQL CL command. Today, we'll look at how the RUNSQL command can be used to query, or select, data from the SAMPLE database we created in the earlier article.
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2022 marks the eighth edition of the IBM i Marketplace Survey Results. Each year, Fortra captures data on how businesses use the IBM i platform and the IT and cybersecurity initiatives it supports.
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Brunswick is the leader in bowling products, services, and industry expertise for the development and renovation of new and existing bowling centers and mixed-use recreation facilities across the entertainment industry. However, the lifeblood of Brunswick’s capital equipment business was running on a 15-year-old software application written in Visual Basic 6 (VB6) with a SQL Server back-end. The application was at the end of its life and needed to be replaced.
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IT managers hoping to find new IBM i talent are discovering that the pool of experienced RPG programmers and operators or administrators is small.
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Have you been wondering about Node.js? Our free Node.js Webinar Series takes you from total beginner to creating a fully-functional IBM i Node.js business application. In Part 2, Brian May teaches you the different tooling options available for writing code, debugging, and using Git for version control. Attend this webinar to learn:
In this session, IBM i security expert Robin Tatam provides a quick recap of IBM i security basics and guides you through some advanced cybersecurity techniques that can help you take data protection to the next level. Robin will cover:
Don't miss this chance to take your knowledge of IBM i security beyond the basics.
In today’s threat landscape, upper management is laser-focused on cybersecurity. You need to make progress in securing your systems—and make it fast.
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Your system didn’t become unsecure overnight and you won’t be able to turn it around overnight either. But quick wins are possible with IBM i security, and Robin Tatam will show you how to achieve them.
Malicious programs can bring entire businesses to their knees—and IBM i shops are not immune. It’s critical to grasp the true impact malware can have on IBM i and the network that connects to it. Attend this webinar to gain a thorough understanding of the relationships between:
There are a number of ways you can minimize your exposure to viruses. IBM i security expert Sandi Moore explains the facts, including how to ensure you're fully protected and compliant with regulations such as PCI.
DB2 Field Procedures (FieldProcs) were introduced in IBM i 7.1 and have greatly simplified encryption, often without requiring any application changes. Now you can quickly encrypt sensitive data on the IBM i including PII, PCI, PHI data in your physical files and tables.
Watch this webinar to learn how you can quickly implement encryption on the IBM i. During the webinar, security expert Robin Tatam will show you how to:
Despite the many options IBM has provided to protect your systems and data, many organizations still struggle to apply appropriate security controls.
In this webinar, you'll get insight into how the criminals accessed these systems, the fallout from these attacks, and how the incidents could have been avoided by following security best practices.
You will learn the steps you can take to avoid the mistakes made in these examples, as well as other inadequate and misconfigured settings that put businesses at risk.
When it comes to creating your business applications, there are hundreds of coding platforms and programming languages to choose from. These options range from very complex traditional programming languages to Low-Code platforms where sometimes no traditional coding experience is needed.
Download our whitepaper, The Power of Writing Code in a Low-Code Solution, and:
Have you been wondering about Node.js? Our free Node.js Webinar Series takes you from total beginner to creating a fully-functional IBM i Node.js business application.
Part 1 will teach you what Node.js is, why it's a great option for IBM i shops, and how to take advantage of the ecosystem surrounding Node.
In addition to background information, our Director of Product Development Scott Klement will demonstrate applications that take advantage of the Node Package Manager (npm).
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The Biggest Mistakes in IBM i Security
Here’s the harsh reality: cybersecurity pros have to get their jobs right every single day, while an attacker only has to succeed once to do incredible damage.
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