Removing duplicate records from a file

How to remove duplicate records from a file? is a question I have been asked by so many different people I feel that it must be on one of those interview questions lists. What I mean by duplicate records is where there is more than one record in a file were values in all are the same as another record. I do not mean records with duplicate keys, as that is whole other "can of worms".

In a well built database each "master" file or table should have a unique key, which prevents duplicate keys and records:

Steve Will talks of future TRs and releases

In the past few months I have written about sightings suggesting that a new release, IBM i 7.3, might be coming:

• Is IBM i 7.3 already out?
• More proof IBM i 7.3 is coming

Steve Will, IBM i's Chief Architect, wrote a post on the "You and i" blog titled "Signs and Portents for IBM i Announcements". In it he talked, in general terms, about Technology Refreshes and future releases:

Retrieving the job's library list using SQL

Before IBM i 7.2 if I wanted to retrieve the current job's library list I would have to use either the Retrieve Job Attributes command, RTVJOBA, or the Retrieve Job Information API, QUSRJOBI. As part of "librarian services" a new View was introduced, LIBRARY_LIST_INFO, and as its name suggests it allows me to retrieve information about my job's library list.

Like all the other new Views and Table Functions LIBRARY_LIST_INFO resides in the library QSYS2. It is possibly the smallest View I have written about as it has only six columns (fields):

Submit Job passing packed decimals

Every once in a while I get several people asking me the same question. As the examples accompanying tend to be the same I assume that this question has become part of some organization's interview question list. Recently it has been questions about using packed decimal variables with the Submit Job command, SBMJOB.

Most of us when we started on the IBM i (or one of its earlier forms) tried a SBMJOB with a packed decimal variable. The submitted job produced the following error message: "MCH1202: Decimal data error". After trying several different ways we admitted defeat, convert the packed decimal variable to character and used that in the SBMJOB.

Journal information using SQL

It is Monday morning and I receive an email from my superior asking about the journals on the production IBM i. How can there be so many? How many are active? How much space do they take up? How many are remote journals? I need a quick and easy way to get to information about the journals. There is a Retrieve Journal Information API I could use. Fortunately there is a SQL View, added in IBM i 7.2, that does the basically the same thing as the API, but it is a heck of a lot easier to get the information from.

Those of you who are regular readers of this blog will not be surprised to learn that the JOURNAL_INFO View is located in the library QSYS2. It contains a lot more information that I have been asked to provide. Rather than list all of the columns I am going to refer you to the relevant page in the IBM's KnowledgeCenter here.