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Status Not under consideration
Workspace IBM i
Categories Core OS
Created by Guest
Created on Mar 28, 2017

The limit of 9999 records in a subfile is more than 30 years old. Time to increase

There is some justifcation about the limit of 9999 for a subfile. It is more than 500 pages. To roll so many pages does not make sense.

But many have desinged programs that search subfiles, sort the subfile, print the subfile,
see also request https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/rfe/execute?use_case=viewRfe&CR_ID=102953

Therefore big subfiles are useful even if the user cannot reach to the end of the subfile.

Maybe the limit should be 999,999,999 records.


Use Case:

When the subfile reaches 9999 records it crashes the program. The limit is way back in the old S38 days.


Idea priority Medium
  • Guest
    Reply
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    May 2, 2022

    This is an old RFE and should probably be purged. The code for Subfiles goes back to the late 1970s (at least 45 years) and the likelihood of it being changed now is 0 (more chance of it breaking thatn being enhanced). No one is brave enough to touch that code. the recommendation use page at a time subfiles has been there since S/38 was released. (Don't know what the OP meant about s/36 that hobby computer never had subfiles.) Anyway, with the new LIMIT and OFFSET in SQL SELECT statements, doing page at a time subfiles has never been easier so there's little need for this feature except in cases where a legacy app's data is growing with time. then yes it is needed, but still not justified.

  • Guest
    Reply
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    Oct 3, 2017

    IBM does not plan to implement this request at this time.

  • Guest
    Reply
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    Jul 18, 2017

    Green-screen applications will never go away and the CAAC thinks that programmers should focus on business problems and not operating system limitations.

    The CAAC has reviewed this requirement and recommends that IBM view this as a medium priority requirement that should be addressed.

    Background: The COMMON Americas Advisory Council (CAAC) members have a broad range of experience in working with small and medium-sized IBM i customers. CAAC has a key role in working with IBM i development to help assess the value and impact of individual RFEs on the broader IBM i community, and has therefore reviewed your RFE.

    For more information about CAAC, see www.common.org/caac

    For more details about CAAC's role with RFEs, see http://www.ibmsystemsmag.com/Blogs/i-Can/May-2017/COMMON-Americas-Advisory-Council-%28CAAC%29-and-RFEs/

    Dawn May - CAAC Program Manager

  • Guest
    Reply
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    Apr 21, 2017

    Due to processing by IBM, this request was reassigned to have the following updated attributes:
    Brand - Servers and Systems Software
    Product family - Power Systems
    Product - IBM i
    Component - Core OS
    Operating system - IBM i
    Source - None

    For recording keeping, the previous attributes were:
    Brand - Servers and Systems Software
    Product family - Power Systems
    Product - IBM i
    Component - Languages - RPG
    Operating system - IBM i
    Source - None

  • Guest
    Reply
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    Mar 30, 2017

    Matt_Tyler wrote: "Its time to write page at a time loading sub files"/

    This is an option. In the old S36 days there wre no subfiles at all and the prgrammers did a great job rolling back an forth the screens. It wa fantastic, at tha time.

    But thi it was not object oriented. In the object oriented structure, the Operating System does the job of rolling back an forth the screen-subfile, while the programmers are concentrating on the buisness part of the logic. It makes also the code much shorter, standard and easier to maintain.

  • Guest
    Reply
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    Mar 29, 2017

    Its time to write page at a time loading sub files and stop complaining about the limit.