RE: Working with IFS Files -- RPG400-L

Hi Griz,

<snip>
The second reason is I have a utility that uses CPYTOIMPF to copy a PF
to a .csv file.
</snip>

If you're simply generating CSV data from a DB table then...

There's a free utility out there called SQL2XLS - you simply pass it an SQLstatement, an IFS file name, and a couple of other parms. It will thenconvert the file data to an excel spreadsheet. It's pretty good for tableswith less than a few thousand rows. You get a command to use too.

Or you can generate the data as XML, including style data. The XML can thenbe viewed in a browser in ANY style you like.

Again, there's a free utility called SQL2XML that can do this. This issimilar to the SQL2XLS utility.

Otherwise, I've got a service program which allows you to build your own XML(simply calling the procedures yourself - openDoc(), addElement(),openTag(), addAttribute(), etc...). This is quite a passive use. Or you canplace configuration data into a couple of DB tables, pass the serviceprogram a couple of global values, and it will build a complete XML documentusing any number of SQL statements, including nested statements. You simplyuse procedure calls such as: loadDoc(), setGlobalValue(), runDoc() to dothis. The service program uses the QSQPRCED API and prepares the statementsinto a SQL package. As a result, it runs extremely quickly and doesn'trequire the SQL pre-compiler to be installed.

Or, you can use any number of free PDF generation utilities (I think MMAILhas one).

Anyway, the point is - you can convert your DB data into XLS, PDF, XML,etc... for free, and quite easily.

You really don't need to use CSV files any more. Have a look at the otheroptions. I mean, you can even use the option talked about earlier this monthon this forum - generating HTML tables and giving the file a .XLS extension.This forces Windows to use Excel to open the file, but Excel figures outwhat to do and formats the table as a spreadsheet. Now that's REALLY easy,and it means you can present your data as a web page and/or a spreadsheet -after all it's all the same data.


HTH

Cheers

Larry Ducie