RE: Variable length records and network files

Would this be the place for one of those Multi-Format Logical Files that
we've heard so much about recently?

--Paul E Musselman
PaulMmn@ix.netcom.com




>Tony,
>
>Depends on what you do with the file once you've got it.
>Assuming your big problem is amount of disk storage, and assuming you
>don't have applications that process against the 251 byte record, maybe
>you can copy the file to a stream file in the IFS once it's received,
>which should greatly reduce disk consumption.
>
>You won't be able to receive the network file into your variable length
>file, but you may be able to copy the data into it once it's received.
>Still, it won't provide the amount of disk space savings that copying it
>to the IFS would, although it does have the advantage of leaving the
>file in DB2/400 and (more) easily accessable via HLL programs.
>
>
>
>Neil Palmer                                AS/400~~~~~
>NxTrend Technology - Canada   ____________          ___  ~
>Thornhill, Ontario,  Canada   |OOOOOOOOOO| ________  o|__||=
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>mailto:NPalmer@NxTrend.com    AS/400  The Ultimate Business Server
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>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From:        Tony.Minehan@hr-m.b-m.defence.gov.au
>> [SMTP:Tony.Minehan@hr-m.b-m.defence.gov.au]
>> Sent:        Friday, May 15, 1998 6:47 AM
>> To:  midrange-l@midrange.com
>> Subject:     Variable length records and network files
>>
>>
>>
>>      G'Day all,
>>
>>      Every 2 weeks we are sent a file from another government agency.
>> The
>>      file is text only and the record length ranges from 8 bytes (most
>>
>>      records) to 251 bytes (very few, but very important records). An
>>      average number of records is around 6 million. The file is sent
>> from a
>>      S370 via SNA (FTP is not an option at present) and arrives here
>> as a
>>      network file. Currently we receive the file into a single field
>> 251
>>      byte text file and then do our processing. Over the next couple
>> of
>>      fortnights, the file is likely to grow to around 65 million
>> records.
>>
>>      I've defined a new file as follows:
>>
>>       R PAYDET
>>         PAYDET       251A         VARLEN
>>
>>      and tried to receive the network file into this in order to save
>> DASD
>>      space. The receive falls over with a data mapping error (CPF5035)
>> and
>>      an error code of 14 which reads:
>>
>>        14 -- The length of a variable length field is not valid or the
>> data
>>      in a substring variable is not valid.
>>
>>      Also using a CPYF to the filed defined above fails with the same
>>      message. We are on V3R2. Any ideas?
>>
>>      Tony Minehan
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