How to avod Special characters in WRKQRY

[venky2903]

I have to take a outfile using WRKQRY. but in the parent file there are some special characters in data.
Which need to convert into Packed decimal format. Is there any way to convert the character to Packed decimal format using WRKQRY?

[tomliotta]

Re: How to avod Special characters in WRKQRY

There are a couple possibilities. But it's very difficult to show examples without seeing representative samples of the various inputs along with descriptions of what your expected outputs should be.

Can you give some more details?

[vikramx]

Re: How to avod Special characters in WRKQRY

Looking at your question it looks like you are trying to convert packed decimal numbers in a character field TO a packed decimal field. If this is indeed the case, I do not think this is possible using WRKQRY. However we did do this for a generic trigger program which used _LBCPYNV MI.

I would go for an embedded SQL RPG program in this case to create your output file. Perhaps create a UDF which maps to your conversion program and use it within the SQL statements to create your out file.

[tomliotta]

Re: How to avod Special characters in WRKQRY

There is a technical possibility of converting a SUBSTR() to a HEX() value and manipulating the hex digits through some messy time functions, eventually getting numeric values out. But it's ugly and hardly worth it. It'd be interesting to see enough examples of the input to get an idea why anyone would need to do this (and why they'd want to; the old query product is not the right tool for this -- not that any "tool" really should be).

[vikramx]

Re: How to avod Special characters in WRKQRY

@Tom
In our case, we wanted to audit the file changes done by users for a set of standing data files. Instead of writing specific routines to audit each file, we came up with a generic trigger program which would create the audit log entries based on the information in the trigger buffer. In this case, packed decimal data had to convert to readable form to put in the audit logs. Since the trigger program could be attached to any file it had to process the buffer based on the file structure dynamically. This is where I found this conversion useful.

I am guessing the OP is trying something similar OR is trying to analyse data which is in this format.

[tomliotta]

Re: How to avod Special characters in WRKQRY

I've seen cases where S/36-type files have multiple program-described formats. Packed values would appear at different offsets in different formats, and Query/400 was expected to handle it.

In RPG, it's fairly easy just to read over various based DSs that fit whatever format is needed. But a 'Query' is messy.

[DeadManWalks]

Re: How to avod Special characters in WRKQRY

I agree with using RPG. Just because your spec calls for manipulating wrkqry should not mean you are tied to it. Just convey it back to them in the friendliest manner, or just do it and neglect to tell them.

[DeadManWalks]

Re: How to avod Special characters in WRKQRY

Oh, and i would never ever use wrkqry in a production solution. did i say never ever...