Category Archives: Uncategorized

(Originally posted 2006-05-13.) (Scroll down if you’re not interested in DB2) This past week I’ve been updating our SQL Analysis code to cope with Unicode SQL statements. (If you bind a package or plan once you’ve gone to DB2 Version 8 New Function Mode the statement text is stored in the Catalog in Unicode.) TheseContinue reading “ASCII to EBCDIC Conversion with DFSORT”

(Originally posted 2006-05-06.) Nope, I’m not going to do a Rumsfeld. 🙂 But there are a couple of things I didn’t know (I didn’t know) about DFSORT. Relating them to you is probably OK because It’s not something I’m embarrassed about.:-) If you want to understand some of the funkier new DFSORT tricks you probablyContinue reading “Unknown Unknowns”

(Originally posted 2006-05-02.) Saw an APAR described as INCORRECT OUPUT 🙂 the other day. That reminds me of a time long ago when a friend had a foil titled Qualtiy.:-)

(Originally posted 2006-04-25.) Following on from Generating XML Using DFSORT – Part II here are some thoughts on how to parse XML with DFSORT. NOTE: For more complex XML than this entry describes you probably want to use the XML Toolkit for z/OS. This provides C++ and Java parsers for XML and a stand-alone XSLTContinue reading “Parsing XML with DFSORT”

(Originally posted 2006-04-24.) In Generating XML Using DFSORT – Part I I described how to generate XML using some of DFSORT’s new features. But the XML we generated was only one of the possible styles of XML: Most of the information was specified as attributes (with the values enclosed in quotes). Here’s a sample line:Continue reading “Generating XML Using DFSORT – Part II”

(Originally posted 2006-04-24.) Following on from This entry on creating CSV files here’s the first of several entries on manipulating XML with DFSORT… This is not intended to be a tutorial on XML but rather an exploration of how DFSORT can read (shred) and write (compose) XML. (I also use the terms ingest and emitContinue reading “Generating XML Using DFSORT – Part I”

(Originally posted 2006-04-21.) I plan on writing some entries on creating and parsing XML with DFSORT (using the UK90006 / UK90007 functional enhancments that DFSORT Development recently announced). But here’s a limbering up example – creating a CSV file from regular sequential file input. CSV files (Comma-Separated Value (or Variable if you prefer)) are ofContinue reading “Using DFSORT to create CSV files”

(Originally posted 2006-04-20.) Here’s my first tip with the new UK90006 / UK90007 DFSORT PTFs. It’s an apparently minor enhancement that I think people will like… It leads to a more elegant syntactical expression. It is more maintainable – in the face of changing record layouts. Suppose you want to search a file for aContinue reading “Search and Replace with the new DFSORT functional PTFs”

(Originally posted 2006-04-20.) As many of you know I like to beta DFSORT function PTFs. About once a year a new set of functions appears, many in direct response to customer requirements. Occasionally some of the enhancements are at my suggestion. 🙂 Yesterday PTFs UK90006 and UK90007 became available. (Being UK based it’s nice toContinue reading “DFSORT New Function PTFs”

(Originally posted 2006-04-07.) As of today I have a new job. I still work for IBM. I’m still UK based. I still do performance analysis with customers in the same way. But some things have changed: I now work in Software Group, rather than what’s now called Global Technology Services. I now have a geographicalContinue reading “My New Job”