Re: SQL Existence Check

["Walden Leverich" <walden@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

First: Unacceptable! :-) I will find a way.

Second: We are writing a program to perform an action over a vendor supplied
file. I do not want the program to level check whenever the vendor adds a
new field to the end of the file. I agree that "classic" i/o would be better
here, but I figured I would give the list a chance to find a way. Generally
I use SQL where SQL makes sense (Set operations) and do the rest in RPG.

-Walden
-----Original Message-----
From: John Carr <74711.77@compuserve.com>
To: Midrange-L <MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com>
Date: Tuesday, November 18, 1997 6:42 AM
Subject: SQL Existence Check


>RE: SQL Existence Check
>
<snip>
>
>First,  No.
>Second, Why?
>
>If one wanted to screw in a screw, one wouldn't use a hammer.
>If I were going to update the AMT field of all records for DEPT 10
>I surely would UPDATE FILE SET AMT=500 WHERE DEPT = 10
>
>So why don't you want to use the best tool? Just curious?
> KEY     SETLL FILE              50
> IF    (*IN50 = *ON)
>
>Simplest to code
>Simplest to understand
>Most efficient usage of the RDBMS
>
>Again,  Just curious?
>
>I think (like a single record random retrieval) SQL's implementation
>compared to the native implementation is complex, contrived and
>inefficient.  And those are the good points.  BTW, I use both interactive
>& embedded SQL every day for SET at a time processing.


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