Re: SQL Question -- MIDRANGE-L

-----Original Message-----
From: John Taylor <john.taylor@telusplanet.net>
To: MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com <MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com>
Date: Friday, June 30, 2000 10:06 AM
Subject: RE: SQL Question


>
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: owner-midrange-l@midrange.com
>> [mailto:owner-midrange-l@midrange.com]On Behalf Of R. Bruce Hoffman, Jr.
>> Sent: Friday, June 30, 2000 5:52 AM
>> To: MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
>> Subject: Re: SQL Question
>
>Hi Bruce,
>
>How about another example?
>
>Customer places order for 5 items. Order is committed, and pick ticket is
>generated. Customer later calls back and cancels item line 1. Salesman
>"voids" item line 1, leaving an order with valid items lines 2 through 5,
>and life goes on. In order to reorder the item lines, you'll either have to
>complicate your audit trail (because paperwork has already been generated),
>or cancel and re-enter the entire order.
>
>How do you handle it?
>


< WARNING WILL ROBINSON... > please do not take as a flame...  I am grinning
while I write this and have time on my hands this morning. Have to go cut
4.5 acres of lawn before the party tommorow...

Ok, now you're just playing with me...

If the pick ticket is printed, the order could already be picked. It could
already be boxed. (Just try to get a shipper to open a box and remove a $5
item and repack the whole thing... it just isn't worth it.  It will be a
return.) It could already be shipped. All hypothetical.

This is what triggers and stored procedures are for, keeping data clean
without manual labor.

You don't have to cancel the order and you don't have to re-enter the order.
That is manual work.  But you can, with any number of methods, maintain a 1
thru n numbering of your line items.  And you don't have to complicate your
audit trail. Cancelled items can be stored with null sequence numbers (just
as one example!).  And don't use the sequence number to print with... just
use it to *sequence*.  To my mind, the sequence number is an internal
control.  A convenience for the programmer (as outlined in the original
request for something simple in SQL).  Later, when the data is in the
warehouse, will it matter that the hookey suit bandana was ordered just
before or just after the faux lizard skin size 35 belt? But, that it was
item 7 out of 6, might just matter during the data scrub.  Will the customer
care that the belt appears on line one and the suit appears on line four,
even though they ordered the belt last?

We could go on and on...

Did you notice the emoticons?  I am not suggesting that there is no reason.
I am not formulating in black and white.  I was just curious for goodness
sake.  I wasn't looking for a battle, just why someone did it different than
I usually do and what *his* specific situation was.  I also said "sure" to
your last post.  I got it.

<VERY BIG GRIN>   you know, you still aren't Brad...  <GRIN AGAIN>

===========================================================
R. Bruce Hoffman, Jr.
 -- IBM Certified AS/400 Professional System Administrator
 -- IBM Certified AS/400 Professional Network Administrator
 -- IBM Certified Specialist - AS/400 Administrator
 -- IBM Certified Specialist - RPG IV Developer

"If all you have is RPG, then everything looks like a 400!"



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