RE: PC tool to access 400 data

> Microsoft Access works.  I just became aware that one of my users has
> figured out how to update AS/400 data directly using an output table
> generated from a Microsoft Access database containing a linked AS/400
> table.  He is currently editing the data directly in the query table but
> in theory it shouldn't be much harder to set up a form.

I tried this a couple of years ago but ran into problems. I was using the 
HitSoft
ODBC driver, Access 2.0 and OS/400 V3R1. I had two problems:

1.  Whenever I tried to use the space bar to clear a field, it tried to use a 
NULL
      instead of spaces. My database on the AS/400 wasn't NULL capable. I kept
      getting an error and it wouldn't do the update.

2.  I had logicals over physicals with "logical" fields in them (i.e. the field 
in the
      logical did not exist in the physical). This is due to substrings, 
translates,
      etc. Access would not allow me to connect to the AS/400 file if the 
physical
      had a logical with any of these type fields, even when I was trying to use
      the physical itself. Microsoft blamed the ODBC driver. HitSoft blamed 
Access
      and ODBC standards. Many of the main files (Customer Master, Order Header,
      Order Detail, etc) had these types of logicals, so using Access was 
limited.

I don't know if these things happen with all ODBC drivers or with newer versions
of Access. I haven't tried it recently.

Joe Teff
Information Technology Consultant
IBM Certified Specialist - AS/400 RPG Programmer
Quality Data Systems
Minneapolis, MN

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