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IBM believes that the request described has been solved.
There are several ways to record comments for a view.
1. Within the query part of the view, all embedded comments (using /* */ or --) are kept as part of the view text that is used when generating the SQL for a create view statement. If you enclose the query in parentheses, comments after the initial paren and before the SELECT keyword are included in the text. This is a good location to add view details.
2. The COMMENT ON TABLE statement can be used to record up to 2000 characters of descriptive text associated with the view.
3. The COMMENT ON COLUMN statement can be used to record up to 2000 characters of descriptive text for each column in the view.
When the DDL is generated for a view, the comments are (by default) generated as well, grouping this associated documentation with the view definition.
The CAAC has reviewed this requirement and recommends that IBM not implement this request. Although this point cannot be done today: "Views, indexes, etc. built over physical files have no way of retrieving COMMENTS etc from the physical files.", the others are already available within the CREATE statement. The COMMENT ON function gives you the other functionality that was requested, as well as doing a /* */ type of comment.
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/
Nancy Uthke-Schmucki - CAAC Program Manager
Moreover, LABEL ON TABLE and COMMENT ON TABLE also works for views.
It is already possible to put SQL comments in and around the SELECT statement - here is an example -
CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW labqm01/view1 AS SELECT ACTNO, ACTDESC /* no ACTKWD */ FROM LABQM01.ACT
The comment can be placed between /* and */, instead of after the --, although that can also work.
The CL-style comments have been around at least since 7.3, I ran the above on a 7.4 box.
Vern Hamberg
CAAC member