Re: timestamp data type in DDS

[Jim Essinger <dilbernator@xxxxxxxxx>]

You are right that this is not RPG related, and would be best asked in
Midrange-l.

When you copy to the new version of the file with the timestamp field, what
do you want the value to be for the timestamp?  You don't have a value to
populate with, and if you did not specify a default value in the DDS, then
you just might get the current date and time.

Jim

On Fri, Jul 24, 2009 at 9:06 AM, dale janus <dalejanus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>wrote:

> I know this may not be pure RPG, but I have an "interesting" set of
> circumstances that need some light shed on.
>
>
> We created a file with DDS.  In this file, we put a timestamp field as
> the last field, type Z.  This was so  PHP could make use of the date in
> a format it recognized rather than a 6 digit number.  The file is a
> dashboard file with one record per day and we want to use some google
> tools to display as graphs, charts, etc.
>
> After creating the file and getting some PHP programs to use the data,
> we found we needed to add new fields.   Rather than add them on the end,
> I put them in the front of the timestamp field, so that timestamp was
> the last field in the file?  Why? I don't know.   I probably should have
> just added the new fields to the end of the file.
> Then I used my normal technique of CPYF with NOCHK to populate the new
> file with data, leaving the new fields blank.  Much to my surprise, this
> changed all the timestamps to the date and time of the CPYF.   I used
> DFU to change only the date portion of the timestamp to reflect the
> correct day, since we don't care about the time part.
>
> This broke the PHP program, causing a fetch error.  Now that I'm
> thinking about it, the PHP program probably did not work before I
> changed the dates.
>
> PHP can open the  file ok, but anything after that gets a fetch error:
> *Warning*: db2_fetch_both() [function.db2-fetch-both
> <http://192.168.1.200:88/dashboard/function.db2-fetch-both>]: Fetch
> Failure in */www/sptserver/htdocs/dashboard/index.php* on line *8*
>
>
> We can read the old file just fine.
>
> I am guessing there is invalid data in the timestamp field.
>
> So what is the magic with a timestamp field?    Why did the timestamp
> change in the first place from my copy?  Did I create invalid data when
> correcting it  with DFU?    How do I go about correcting a timestamp
> field?  How do I go about adding fields to a file with timestamp without
> changing the stamp?
>
> ---Dale
>
>
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>
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