RE: Retrieve record last updated date

Well, it depends....  Generally, the answer is no, except in a few cases.

Case 1.  The file contains an update timestamp as a field in the record format. 
 This is a very common technique for tracking record changes, but it's limited 
to retaining the LAST update only.  

Case 2.  The file has a trigger attached that records data changes to a "Change 
log".  In this case, your change log should record the date-time associated 
with the change, and because there will be an entry for each event, you can 
construct a timeline of changes made to the file and/or fields.

Case 3.  The file is journaled, and sufficient history exists in the journal to 
construct a change timeline.  Journals are routinely purged from systems, so 
its unlikely that a single journal will contain all the needed transactions.  
From what you stated, it seems this approach will not be effective.

Case 4.  I hesitate to even mention it, because it's so ugly, but depending on 
your backup schedules, you could possible restore this file from backup(s) and 
track changed records from backup to backup.  This is an iterative approach, 
and does not necessarily lock you into a specific date, that the change was 
made, but rather a window of dates (weekly, monthly, etc) that correspond to 
you backup schedule.  The issue here is availability of backup data, as tapes 
are often reused after some duration.  

For the future, if you need this capability added to your applications, I'd 
suggest Case 2.  The trigger/change-log combo works well once it's 
operational....

hth,

Eric DeLong
Sally Beauty Company
MIS-Project Manager (BSG)
940-297-2863 or ext. 1863



-----Original Message-----
From: rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Christopher Guild
Sent: Wednesday, November 01, 2006 10:32 AM
To: rpg400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Retrieve record last updated date


All,
Does anyone have an effective way to retrieve the date last updated/modified on 
physical file records? I need to compare two files of the same name in separate 
libraries to determine record mismatches. 
I would like to know if their is an API to call to retrieve this information, 
or if it can be done in RPG or CL?
Thanks for your assistance.
Chris