RE: Easiest and most functional way to convert selectedspoolfilesinto Excel

Yea, forget the spool file.  Go straight to the source--the files.  A
product like Showcase (www.spss.com) makes it easy to create queries with a
GUI or with SQL that can be linked to Excel spreadsheets.  Once created
they prompt to be refreshed each time you open the spreadsheet.  Showcase
includes a report writer and security options that go above regular OS/400
security.

You could also do a direct access via ODBC.  You could do a download into
Excel format through the Client/Access download option.


Dave Parnin
--
Nishikawa Standard Company
Topeka, IN  46571
daparnin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx




                                                                                
                                 
                      Don <dr2@xxxxxxxx>                                        
                                 
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                                                  Subject:  RE: Easiest and 
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                                                   selectedspoolfilesinto Excel 
                                 
                      04/25/2006 10:58 AM                                       
                                 
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Dude,

you need to think like a knuckle dragging bean counter.  They see a report,
they want it in excel, they will go to the moon to get it in excel (they'll
go to Mars if it's THE GENERAL LEDGER... :)  )

Some times it's faster and easier just to give them a utility that rips a
splf into a .xls or .csv and let them play than do add it to the heap of to
do's... :)

(sarcasm intentional :)

Don in DC

--------------------------------------

At 08:43 AM 4/25/2006 -0500, you wrote:
>What is the advantage to converting a spooled file to Excel as opposed to
>simply converting the data to excel instead?  I guess I am thinking like a
>programmer and not a user on this because to me it seems much easier to
work
>directly with the data as opposed to a pre-existing report which will then
>have to be parsed and formatted to fit into Excel.
>
>Obviously I am missing something here.
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
>[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Cassidy, Alan
>Sent: Tuesday, April 25, 2006 8:28 AM
>To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
>Subject: RE: Easiest and most functional way to convert
>selectedspoolfilesinto Excel
>
>CPYTOIMPF does indeed output just one column. There are a couple of vendor
>products out there that also promise to convert your spool file into CSV
>files but one product I checked out once did the same thing. (I don't
think
>it was one of the vendors who offered products hereing).
>
>There is "heavy lifting" like Vernon said, is "getting the data out" from
>the spool file, because there are your inevitable title lines and column
>headings. Then sometimes you get extra little lines in between, variable
>numbers of lines per record, and so on.
>
>But with all that, some new report programs I've had to do were a lot
easier
>to do by writing code to extract it. A good commercial product could
>automate almost all of this I think, and would generally come as part of
>another software product, like report distribution, etc.
>
>--Alan
>
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
>[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of PaulMmn
>Sent: Tuesday, April 25, 2006 8:40 AM
>To: midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx
>Subject: RE: Easiest and most functional way to convert selected
>spoolfilesinto Excel
>
>
>Did anyone mention CPYTOIMPF  (check spelling)...  this command will
>copy a flat file to a CSV format file and put it in the IFS folder of
>your choice.  CSV is readable by Excell.  CPYTOIMPF is free; comes
>with OS/400.
>
>--Paul E Musselman
>PaulMmn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
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