Re: sysibm.sysdummy1

[Vern Hamberg <vhamberg@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

sysdummy1 is a single-record table - intended for getting a single value 
in a SELECT. There is a physical file that serves the same function - 
QSQPTABL.

OP could have got a lot of information by googling on "sysdummy1" - one 
entry has this bit -

    "The /sysibm.sysdummy1/ table is a special in-memory table that can 
be used to discover the value of DB2 registers as illustrated above."

On the i it is not an in-memory table, but that doesn't really matter.

Another google item says "...it was added to maintain consistency with 
DB2 for z/OS..."

From DB2 for z/OS -

    "The SYSIBM.SYSDUMMY1 table contains one row. The table is used for 
SQL statements in which a table reference is required, but the contents 
of the table are not important."

Basically it and QSQPTABL are single-record files, and you can use them 
to get a result of an expression. Many functions require a single-row 
result set.

I use it to test things in interactive SQL. Maybe I want to know what 
happens when I work with some date expression - I'll use
    SELECT current date - '1959-22-23-11.12.56.123456' from sysdummy1
to see what I'd get. VALUES can't be used in the interactive setting, 
although I'd probably use that or SET in a program.

As to which values you can get in VALUES - read the documentation! It's 
kind of weird, but it really is just a function that evalutates an 
expression and returns the result.

HTH
Vern

Michael Ryan wrote:
> I don't think you're pulling anything from that table...it's just a
> mechanism to enable you to do SQL things without really having data.
>
> On Fri, Jul 31, 2009 at 9:11 AM, ibm <ibm@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>   
> > Can someone point me to reference for the valid values to pull from
> > sysdummy tables?
> >
> >
> >
> > Thanks
> >
> > Chris
> >
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