Showcase Article - Physical and Logical Files The AS/400 database, DB2/400 is part of the AS/400 operating system.

It is a rel ational database and has features similar to other databases you may have used s uch as Microsoft Access, Oracle or Dbase. The standard method of creating files is to define the specifications of the file using DDS. Of course DDS is used for other things on the AS/400 like defining display files and print files. Create a Physical File To create a physical database file, enter your source statements in a DDS source file member. For now, name the member "CUS" for customer file. Make sure the me mber type is "PF". This tells the compiler that this is for a physical file. Ent er the records in Figure 1 to define a simple customer file. Notice that the fir st record has an "R" in position 17. This means that this line is specifying the record name, in this case "CUREC". The "TEXT" is optional but helps to document the file. After the line naming the record, each line describes a field. The field name is followed by the field length and its data type. The three most used data types are "A" for alpha or character, "S" for numeric and "P" for packed decimal. For numeric fields, you must also specify the number of decimal positions. So here, the company number field is a three digit number with no decimal places. The cus tomer number and zip code are also numeric fields with no decimal places. The cr edit limit is a numeric, packed decimal field with 9 digits, of which two are af ter the decimal point. The rest of the fields are character fields. Once you have entered the DDS source code, you must compile it. You do this by k eying option 14 next to your member name on the PDM screen. If you pay attention you will see that the AS/400 is actually executing the CRTPF (Create Physical F ile) command. It knows to use this command because the member type of the source code is "PF". You now have a database physical file. This file has built into it the fields an d their attributes. Create a Physical File With Key Fields Let's modify this file definition to add key fields. If a physical file has key fields, programs can randomly access the records or read them sequentially in th e order of the key fields. You can see in Figure 2 that it is simple to add key fields. The "UNIQUE" record at the beginning of the source is used if you want the AS/40 0 to insist on having no records with duplicate keys. This is optional. At the end of the source code, there are two lines with "K" in position 17. Thes e lines define the key fields. So, this file will build a key using the company number and then the customer number. Further, it will not allow a duplicate comp any number / customer number records to be written. The records are written to the file in arrival sequence. If you read the data by specifying keyed access, the records will read as though they have been sorted by company number and customer number. Also, your programs can randomly retrieve records. For example, a "CHAIN" instruction in RPG can now randomly read the re cord for a specific company number / customer number. Create a Logical File To Resequence Order of Records Now for the real magic. In only a few lines of source code, you can create a log ical file. This is a way of reading the file with a different key. A logical fil

e is a list of key values that point to the physical file. It does NOT contain c opies of the data in the physical file. To create a logical file, again enter your source statements in a DDS source fil e member named "CUS01". This time, make sure the member type is "LF". Enter the source code in Figure 3. The first line tells the compiler that this logical file will resequence the rec ords in the physical file named in the "PFILE" specification. In this case it is the "CUST" file. Also, notice that here we are using the same record name as th e physical file, "CUREC". The only remaining lines are like the last two lines of the physical file source . They name the fields that you want to use as keys. Again compile the file by using option 14. This time, the AS/400 will execute th e "CRTLF" (create logical file) command. You now can read the customer file in c ity / state sequence simply by reading the file "CUS01" in keyed sequence. Create a Logical File To Select and Resequence Records Finally, look at Figure 4. The "S" type record will select only records that hav e customer status equal to "A". Also, this logical file will read the records in customer name sequence. So, a program reading this file in keyed sequence, will read the records alphabe tically by customer name and will read only records of active customers.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------Figure 1 - DDS for Physical File Without Key A A A A A A A A A A R CUREC CUCO CUSTS CUNUM CUNAME CUADR CUCITY CUSTAT CUZIP CUCRLM 3S 1A 5S 30A 30A 18A 2A 9S 9P 0 0 TEXT('CUSTOMER FILE') TEXT('COMPANY #') TEXT('STATUS CODE') TEXT('CUSTOMER #') TEXT('CUSTOMER NAME') TEXT('CUSTOMER ADDRESS') TEXT('CUSTOMER CITY') TEXT('CUSTOMER STATE') TEXT('CUSTOMER ZIP') TEXT('CUST CREDIT LIMIT')

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Figure 2 - DDS for Physical File With Key Fields A A A A A A A A A A A R CUREC CUCO CUSTS CUNUM CUNAME CUADR CUCITY CUSTAT CUZIP CUCRLM UNIQUE TEXT('CUSTOMER FILE') TEXT('COMPANY #') TEXT('STATUS CODE') TEXT('CUSTOMER #') TEXT('CUSTOMER NAME') TEXT('CUSTOMER ADDRESS') TEXT('CUSTOMER CITY') TEXT('CUSTOMER STATE') TEXT('CUSTOMER ZIP') TEXT('CUST CREDIT LIMIT')

3S 1A 5S 30A 30A 18A 2A 9S 9P

0 0

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* A A K CUCO K CUNUM

Figure 3 - DDS for Logical File to Resequence Order of Records A A * A A K CUCITY K CUSTAT R CUREC PFILE(CUS) TEXT('CUST BY CITY / STATE')

Figure 4 - DDS for Logical File to Select and Resequence A A A * A S CUSTAT COMP(EQ 'A') R CUREC K CUNAME PFILE(CUS) TEXT('CUST NAME/ACTIVE ONLY')