Re: Working around CPYF limitations of FROMKEY with signed keys

Charles Wilt wrote:

I've got a need to enable the CPYF using the FROMKEY/TOKEY
parameter with a signed numeric key when one specific file is
being copied. The call to CPYF is being done in a vendor's
program.

Basically, the vendor's program will do

CPYF FROMFILE(LIB1/MYFILE) TOFILE(LIB2/MYFILE)
FROMKEY(1 -100) TOKEY(1 -100)

I'm thinking that QIBM_QCA_CHG_COMMAND may be my answer.

I can build an exit program that check to see if CPYF is being
used on MYFILE with the FROMKEY and TOKEY parameters. If so, I
could invoke a custom written program to copy the appropriate
records.

I really do not understand the intention as described. Does that mean to imply that there is no access to the vendor program to correct their invocation? Why not just ask the vendor to correct their program?

I'd set the vendor software up so that it passed the value as
character

CPYF FROMFILE(LIB1/MYFILE) TOFILE(LIB2/MYFILE)
FROMKEY(1 '-100') TOKEY(1 '-100')

So there is some ability to change the software.?

Does anybody see any possible issues with this?

I do not expect the character string value '-100' to function any better than the value -100 [treated as numeric value]. The former is a character string x'60F1F0F0' which is not even valid BCD numeric data, and the latter is presumably passed to the CPP of the CPYF as x'000000010000000D' and then utilized as a binary string of the length-in-bytes of the field. I believe the desired specification is FROMKEY(*BLDKEY (-100)) TOKEY(*BLDKEY (-100)).

IIRC the non-*BLDKEY /key/ values for numeric types must be specified using hex notation to match the internal representation of the numeric data type & length. For example, by using x'123D' for a P(3,1) column to select the key values of -12.3 from the key. But even that is problematic as I recall, because the character value for the FROMKEY() and TOKEY() are treated as binary strings instead of being mapped to the internal type for any comparisons; e.g. fromkey(1 x'100D') tokey(1 x'000F') may yield no results for an ascending key, because the CPYF dismisses the illogical selection.?

Regards, Chuck