RE: Recursive SQL on the i

HI I was interested in how you might be using Recursive SQL on the i.
From what I have read on the IBM web site on this topic,. it seems most
used in very large enormous, complex, data sets.

My way has always been to break the task into smaller manageable parts.

I'm not sure what you mean by recursive, but correlated SQL statements are really, really handy. If you need to drill down (or up) a Bill of Material to an unknown number of levels, you could create endless amounts of temporary files until you stop getting more results. With correlated SQL statements, you can create this in a single statement and it handles the processing up/down the chain. I do not consider our data to be either enormous (less than a terabyte of production data) or complex (it's just standard BOMS which have been around forever).

Just as an FYI, I was very pleasantly surprised to find out that HelpSystems SEQUEL product also supports full language features like this. You can specify to use native SQL syntax and make full access of all the advanced features in SQL. You do have to give up the simplified syntax/front end that SEQUEL provides, but it's well worth it when you need to.





_____________________________________________________________________
Spirax-Sarco Engineering Plc. This e-mail has been scanned for viruses by Verizon Business Internet Managed Scanning Services - powered by MessageLabs. For further information visit http://www.verizonbusiness.com/uk