Re: Multi-member files - Big picture feedback

Big Question:  What version of OS?

Because you can create and manipulate multimember files with SQL now.  The 
big difference in concept is that you use a key to determine which member 
to store the record in.  In times past that was considered a waste of 
space and that the member name should be good enough.  However, newer 
versions of OS call these multimember tables as "partitioned tables"
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/iseries/v5r3/topic/dbmult/partitionedtables.htm

CREATE TABLE ROB/HELGREN 
(TRANDATE DATE NOT NULL, 
SOMEDATA CHAR (5 ) NOT NULL WITH DEFAULT) 
PARTITION BY RANGE(TRANDATE) 
 (STARTING('1995-01-01') ENDING('2010-12-31') EVERY(1 YEAR))

"You must have DB2 Multisystem installed" on your iSeries server in order 
to take advantage of partitioned tables support. There are, however, some 
important differences between DB2 Multisystem and partitioning. DB2 
Multisystem provides two ways to partition your data:
You can create a distributed table to distribute your data across several 
iSeries systems or logical partitions. 
You can create a partitioned table to partition your data into several 
members in the same database table on one system.
In both cases, you access the table as if it were not partitioned at all.

Another example of partitioning:  Each system could be a geographical 
location.  A key to that file could be the location.  DB2 would 
automatically store the row on the right table.

Rob Berendt