Re: join logical keys by secondary file, any free way around this

We also have scenarios where users need interactive access to joinings of 
some rather large files, and we do not have infinite disk space & other 
resources.

A partial solution, which might not be acceptable to you.

Every nite a scheduled job rebuilds a cross index that has elements of 
several files.
In your case it would be like a file that has just the item / description & 
anything else that is essential & then you make that your primary file, with 
the understanding repeated to all users periodically that these reports / 
inquiry will not include today's input.

I also have this rebuild on a menu option so users have the option of
1. Rebuilding the Cross Index, which runs on JOBQ & takes like 5 minutes
2. Doing the interactive view of the whole picture, including what got added 
today.

Another example ... yes there are these big files, but sometimes they have 
some fields that are available for us to add things to.  For example, we are 
make to order in which certain categories of end items are made for one 
particular customer, so we found a place in the item master where we could 
stash the customer #.  You can also stash the first few characters of the 
description ... not the whole thing ... so people get a sort which is not 
100% alphabetical, merly grouping based on first few letters of real field.

In cases where the end users do not need an on-screen display, but can settle 
for a report, it is quite easy to have intermediate work files that are 
cleared after the job is completed.  I have a ton of reports in which some 
RPG program has reached out all over the place to build the data that is 
needed into a work file whose sequence is structured like the ultimate 
report, but that sequence is not how the data got there.

MacWheel99@aol.com (Alister Wm Macintyre) (Al Mac)


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