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When defining a structure in RPGLE to be used on SQL I/O such as fetch or select, today we use DCL-DS @myds qualified… containing either subfields or auto generated subfields using a reference to an external file name, ie. extname(‘TABLE’) resulting in a lay-out of the fields for the SQL columns to be retrieved. We select or fetch (select * into :@myds from table) or (select name, address, state into :@myds from table) into the data structure. If there are null fields, it would be helpful to programmers, if an RPG LIKEDS keyword could be used to define a null indicator data structure to correspond to the fields in structure defined to hold the database record. I believe something like this exists for record level access files using LIKEREC? Is it possible to do similar with the LIKEDS keyword?
Today the SQL for handling nulls uses something like this:
(select * into :@myds :@mydsNull from table) or (select name, address, state into :@myds :@mydsNull from table) this would not change. Only seeking to make a duplicate DS for null indicators, to correspond to whatever is defined for @myds.
Maybe DCL-DS @mydsNull LIKEDS( @myds: *NULLIND ) qualified; would work, to create a structure containing type indicator, for as many fields as are defined in the companion database @myds DS. The programmer could reference as:
IF @mysdnull.name;
to determine if name field contained a null value? Rather than hand code separate names, a programmer would no longer have to manually define null indicator fields named similarly to the database column name, nor code the names followed by indicator fields in the sql. The new support would enable doing (select * into :@myds : @mydsNull from table) but the DS for the null fields would have been created by a single statement.
Sadly, fixed and free versions of this would be nice for folks who aren’t allowed to use free-format by their managers.
Idea priority | Medium |
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Your Idea has two aspects. The first aspect is already available. The second aspect is a duplicate of IBMI-I-1111.
1. Create an externally-described data structure where the subfields have the same names as the fields in the file, but they have the indicator data type.
2. Have those indicators defined as the SQL-type of null indicator (2-byte integer) so it can be used in an SQL select statement.
The first aspect of your request, to use *NULLIND with LIKEDS, is already possible, although you would use EXTNAME or LIKEREC with *NULL to get a data structure with the indicator subfields.
DCL-DS @mydsNull EXTNAME('MYFILE' : *NULL ) qualified END-DS;
or
DCL-F myfile;
DCL-DS @mydsLikerecNull LIKEREC(myfileFmt : *NULL) INZ;
@mydsNull and @mydsLikerecNull have indicator subfields with the same names as the fields in file MYFILE.
https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/i/7.5?topic=keywords-extnamefile-nameformat-nameall-inputoutputkeynull
https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/i/7.5?topic=keywords-likerecintrecnameextract-types
However, this does not address the second aspect of your request, to use this data structure in an SQL SELECT statement. The subfields in a *NULL data structure are RPG indicators, with values like '0' and '1'. The @mydsNull data structure would not be supported for the SELECT statement since that expects 2-byte integers (the SQL-style of null indicator).
The duplicated Idea IBMI-I-1111 is requesting the ability to create a data structure similar to a *NULL data structure, but with SQL-style 2-byte integer null indicators.
-IBM Power Systems Development
This should be an addition to the SQL pre compiler - like the special SQL data types for CLOB, etc.
- IBM Power Systems Development