RE: Variable length records and network files

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   ____________          ___  ~     
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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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