RE: Timestamp field

[Buck Calabro <buck.calabro@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Nelson,

Thanks for the kind words!  As far as I understand things, the SQL
implementation insists on accuracy down to that level whereas the RPG
implementation isn't constrained by international standards.  I am on V4R3,
but I believe that this has been true for as long as the TIME field has been
supported by OS/400.

As for the current situation where the "uniqueness" comes from a timestamp,
all I can say is that I hope Murphy's Law doesn't strike.  I've seen
duplicate timestamps using RPG.  It's rare, but remember that the purpose of
the TIME opcode is not to create a unique key - it is to return the time of
day.  I don't think that anybody guarantees that two calls to TIME will
create two different values.  This same would be true for SQL's CURRENT
TIMESTAMP.

Buck Calabro
Aptis; Albany, NY

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Nelson C. Smith 
> Sent: Thursday, January 20, 2000 5:03 PM
> To:   RPG400-L@midrange.com
> Subject:      Re: Timestamp field
> 
> I have way too much respect for you to dispute what you are saying, Buck,
> but I was just wondering....  Why would the SQL timestamp function be any
> more accurate than the RPG TIME opcode?   In the past, I've had just the
> exact opposite problem.  The RPG opcode would give a good, completely
> accurate timestamp and SQL would not.
> 
> All my audit files use the timestamp as the final unique key (in addition
> to
> whatever key the masterfile used), and we've never had a duplicate key on
> any of our machines (up to a 4-way), except when *LOVAL was being written
> (in error).  Of course, I don't know of any applications that write or
> update the very same record over and over again quick enough to cause such
> a
> problem, so I suppose it's possible we just haven't hit one yet.  We have
> had quite a lot of problems, however, using SQL to write records with a
> timestamp in the key.
> 
> 
+---
| This is the RPG/400 Mailing List!
| To submit a new message, send your mail to RPG400-L@midrange.com.
| To subscribe to this list send email to RPG400-L-SUB@midrange.com.
| To unsubscribe from this list send email to RPG400-L-UNSUB@midrange.com.
| Questions should be directed to the list owner/operator: david@midrange.com
+---