Re: SQL UDF to return one column from a row

Roger, couldn't you just use a view

CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW Item_Supplier AS

SELECT i.CompanyNbr, i.ItemNbr, i.SupplierNbr, s.SupplierName
FROM ItemMaster i
LEFT OUTER JOIN SupplierMaster s on i.SupplierNbr = s.SupplierNbr);

Then just

SELECT *
FROM Item_Supplier;

Do you really need a function?

Rob


On 3/29/2017 6:00 PM, Roger Harman wrote:

I've been going around and around on this. I've done scalar UDF's but this has me stumped.

I want to create a UDF that returns a text description from a reference file. In this case, supplier names are externally stored.

I currently do this with a join but it is a pain to repeat over & over. Also, the external file is multi-use and contains descriptions and other data for thousands of circumstances. So, this could be a big time saver for me.

example: select CompanyNbr, ItemNbr, SupplierNbr, GetSupplierName(CompanyNbr, ItemNbr, SupplierNbr) from ItemMaster

I have yet to find a decent example showing this. Does anyone have an example? Also having trouble with long name versus specific name.

Thanks!

Roger Harman
COMMON Certified Application Developer - ILE RPG on IBM i on Power