Re: Getting a Handle on RPG’s Open Access

On 23-Dec-2014 09:00 -0600, John Yeung wrote:

On Tue, Dec 23, 2014 at 9:42 AM, Alan Cassidy wrote:

I'm at 7.1, so this is "as of" 7.1.

[new CPYTOIMPF parameters]

ORDERBY() - A list in SQL-OrderBy-clause format of the sort
fields...
COLHDG() - If you want column headings, this parameter gives you a
choice of *NONE, *SQL, or *SYS.

Well I'll be. That's handy! The second parameter is actually
ADDCOLNAM. I agree with you that it's undocumented, or at least
under-documented. When I try to bring up the parameter-level help,
it says no help is available.

As much as I have hated this command (at least as much as Rob has),
I will say that it has become a viable way to create CSVs. I believe
there are still some corner cases that it doesn't handle as well as
it could, but it's definitely very usable now. Better than what a lot
of people would write when rolling their own.

Despite being somewhat duplicitous of other replies, I believe the following response provides some additional details that could be of value to some:

The new Order By (ORDERBY) parameter of the command is actually more robust than the nomenclature might imply; more capability than simply support for effecting an ORDER BY clause on the SELECT of the data to export.

The v7r1 support was added by PTF and\or Technology Release (TR), so the new function is documented in the DeveloperWorks; I am not sure why they do not or did not decide to document within the release-specific KnowledgeCenter [previously InfoCenter] with a notation of "first-appeared" designating which TR, but /that is what it is/, and as I recall, that is as IBM had noted how they would provide docs for such added-function.

Regardless, the newer releases into which the new-function will be carried, should include the documentation for what was added as a new-function in some prior release; e.g. the following docs include the ORDERBY and ADDCOLNAM (Add column names) parameter [but not a Column Heading (COLHDG) parameter as described above, so I infer possibly Alan mis-described the support, because I doubt they would have dropped the support as-provided by the PTF]]:
<www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/ssw_ibm_i_72/cl/cpytoimpf.htm>

A link to the wiki about the ORDER BY [and *additional support* for some other clauses like isolation level, FETCH FIRST, OPTIMIZE FOR, etc.]:
<https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/wikis/home?lang=en#!/wiki/IBM%20i%20Technology%20Updates/page/ADD%20ORDERBY%20parameter%20to%20CPYTOIMPF%20command>

And to the Add Column Name (ADDCOLNAM) support for the Copy To Import File (CPYTOIMPF) command [as well as a Remove Column Name (RMVCOLNAM) parameter support for Copy From Import File (CPYFRMIMPF)]:
<https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/wikis/home?lang=en#!/wiki/IBM%20i%20Technology%20Updates/page/CPYTOIMPF%20and%20CPYFRMIMPF%20commands%20%E2%80%93%20Include%20column%20headings>