Re: Query question

[Buck Calabro <buck.calabro@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dean Booth wrote:
 
> I don't know about backwards, but the fact that 
> we need these clever workarounds in order to 
> do conditional defines is absurd.  My vote for 
> the most clever goes to the person using data 
> as a parameter in the substr command.

Every tool has limitations - if you need to make decisions about your data,
Query is not the best thing to be using.  Why not try an HLL?  Using RPG,
this report could be whipped out in under 5 minutes.  Adding an OPNQRYF
front end would add another 5.  

I really liked seeing the various solutions that folks came up with
(including the "zipneg" idea) but only for curiosity value.  If this is
supposed to be used by an end-user (non-programmer) to create reports, you
(the programmer) will have to either take the time to teach the secret or do
it yourself.  Either way, I can hardly believe that the end result is faster
or easier to maintain than an HLL solution.  Just wait six months when the
end user shows you a report with no headings and asks YOU to re-create it
for them because they don't know where it came from but they really need a
new one now.

Buck Calabro
Aptis; Albany, NY
"We are what we repeatedly do.
 Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." --Aristotle


Billing Concepts Corp., a NASDAQ Listed Company, Symbol: BILL
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