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SUPRTOOL Version 4.0 Database Handyman for the HP 3000 Enhancements Since the last major release, Suprtool has been enhanced with the following new features. Allbase Databases Suprtool now supports Allbase databases. You can open an Allbase database with the Open command and choose input tables with the Select command. See the "Allbase" section later in this document for a complete description of the Allbase features that are available in Suprtool. We have tested the new Allbase module with Allbase version G.1.13 for MPE. We believe that it will be compatible with future versions of Allbase. We have not tested Suprtool with any of the F versions of Allbase. Add Command Suprtool now has an Add command which is intended to add records to an Oracle or Allbase SQL database. This is currently available only for Oracle access on HP-UX. It is documented here for completeness. Export Command The Export command has better error checking on activation of STExport. Extract Command Previous versions of Suprtool would not allow arithmetic expressions that started with a constant. If you have an arithmetic expression that starts with a constant, Suprtool assumes that you are attempting to extract a single constant value and not an arithmetic expression. To specify an arithmetic expression that starts with a constant, surround the expression with parentheses. For example, Incorrect >extract c = 6000 - cost Error: Missing comma or invalid arithmetic expression Correct >extract c = (6000 - cost) Form Command The Form command has been enhanced to identify columns that allow null values in SQL tables. Before the Form command can show the columns in a selected table, it has to be preceded by valid Open and Select commands. >form Column Name: Allbase Type: Nulls: Suprtool Type: CUSTOMERNUM Decimal (8) N Packed DELIVERYDATE Decimal (8) Y Packed PRODUCTNUM Decimal (8) N Packed PRICE Decimal (8) Y Packed PURCHASEDATE Decimal (8) N Packed SALESQTY Decimal (4) Y Packed SALESTAX Decimal (8) Y Packed SALESTOTAL Decimal (8) Y Packed Link Command The Link command has better error checking on activation of Suprlink. Set Date Command Suprtool now has two new Set Date commands: Set Date ForceCentury On | Off Set Date Cutoff nn See the "Suprtool and the Year 2000" section for a complete description for each of these settings. Item Command You can specify Oracle dates in the Item command by using the keyword Oracle. For example, >item transdate,date,oracle The Oracle date attribute is only allowed on fields that are exactly seven characters long. If $null(fieldname) The If $null(fieldname) command has been added to select rows that have null values in them. This feature is available only for SQL databases, and you can use this command only on columns that allow null values. >if $null(SALESTOTAL) If you want to find only values that are not null, you can add the NOT keyword in front of $null. >if not $null(SALESTOTAL) If $Invalid(date-field) The If command now has a $invalid function to find all invalid dates for a particular field. An invalid date is any number of a particular date format whose date equivalent cannot be found on the calendar. For example, a date with a month of 99 will be considered invalid. >base store.dbold >get d-sales >item deliv-date,date,yymmdd >item purch-date,date,yymmdd >if $invalid(deliv-date) or $invalid(purch-date) >out baddates,link >xeq Item Command The Item command now allows the following new date formats: ccyymmdd, ccyy, ccyymm, aammdd. See the "Suprtool and the Year 2000" section for a complete description. Oracle Dates Use the Item command to specify that a field contains an Oracle date. Once you have identified an Oracle date, you can use the $date and $today features in both the Extract and If commands to extract or select on Oracle dates. Oracle dates have both a date and a time component, but Suprtool processes only the date component. Link Command The Link command has improved error checking on activation of Suprlink. Output,Link Option If you use the Item command to identify the fields that are Oracle dates, the self-describing files created by the Link option of the Output command will automatically include this information. If you specify a self-describing input file with Oracle dates, Suprtool will automatically recognize the Oracle date attribute. Set Oracle Rows The minimum value for Set Oracle Rows has been changed from 10 to 1. Open Command [OP] This command opens an SQL database. Only one database can be opened at a time. For example, >OPEN ALLBASE DBEname Owner The Suprtool syntax for Allbase is slightly different from that for Oracle. Instead of a password, Suprtool expects the "owner" name that is associated with a specific Allbase database. Select Command [SEL] Specify a select-statement for an open SQL database. The Select command in Suprtool supports all the select-statement features of the open SQL database. Only one Select command can be specified at a time. SELECT select-statement The Select command can contain any expression or clause that is supported by the SQL database. However, there are some Suprtool commands that may perform faster than select-statements (e.g., Suprtool Sort command versus Order By). Set Allbase Rows When the input source is an Allbase database, Suprtool reads more than one row at a time. By default, Suprtool fetches 100 rows at a time. With the Set Allbase Rows command, you can change the number of rows; the minimum number of rows is one and the maximum number is 990. You must specify Set Allbase Rows before you enter the Select command. Data-Types When you specify a Select command, Suprtool figures out how to translate the Allbase internal data-types into formats that it can process. Not all Allbase data-types can be processed by Suprtool. The following table lists the Suprtool data-type that corresponds to each Allbase data-type: Allbase Data-Type Suprtool Data-Type integer double smallint integer binary Not Supported char byte varchar byte real ieee-32 float ieee-64 decimal packed numeric packed TID Not Supported date byte time byte datetime byte interval byte varbinary Not Supported long binary Not Supported long varbinary Not Supported Date and Time Types Allbase has four types of fields that are associated with dates and times. These fields are converted to byte-type data and are returned with specific lengths. The date and time fields are returned with the following byte lengths: Data-Type Length DATE 10 TIME 8 DATETIME 23 INTERVAL 8 Allbase Suprtool can now read Allbase tables and views. The Open and Select commands are used with Allbase. The Form command has been enhanced to show information about Allbase databases. Allbase Access Suprtool now supports Native Char and Native VarChar data-types. The Form command reports these fields as being Char(N) and VarChar(N) respectively. Form Command [F] The Form command now displays information about an open Allbase database. After an Open command, the Form command displays the tables available to the user, together with their owner names. After a Select command, the Form command displays the columns in the specified table. >open Allbase Partsdbe.allbase scott >form Allbase Owner Table: MANUFDB SUPPLYBATCHES MANUFDB TESTDATA PURCHDB INVENTORY PURCHDB ORDERITEMS PURCHDB ORDERS PURCHDB PARTINFO PURCHDB PARTS PURCHDB REPORTS PURCHDB SUPPLYPRICE PURCHDB VENDORS PURCHDB VENDORSTATISTICS RECDB CLUBS RECDB EVENTS RECDB MEMBERS SCOTT EMP >select * from scott.emp >form Column Name: Allbase Type: Nulls: Suprtool Type: EMPNO Decimal (4) N Packed ENAME VarChar (10) Y Byte JOB VarChar (9) Y Byte MGR Decimal (4) Y Packed HIREDATE Char (10) Y Byte SAL Decimal (7,2) Y Packed COMM Decimal (7,2) Y Packed DEPTNO Decimal (2) Y Packed Open Command [OP] This command opens an SQL database. Only one database can be opened at a time. For example, >OPEN ALLBASE DBEname Owner The Suprtool syntax for Allbase is slightly different from that for Oracle. Instead of a password, Suprtool expects the "owner" name that is associated with a specific Allbase database. Select Command [SEL] Specify a select-statement for an open SQL database. The Select command in Suprtool supports all the select-statement features of the open SQL database. Only one Select command can be specified at a time. Allbase sorts data: >select * from user.account@emp order by ename Suprtool sorts data: >select * from user.account@emp >sort ename The Select command can contain any expression or clause that is supported by the SQL database. However, there are some Suprtool commands that may perform faster than select-statements (e.g., Suprtool Sort command versus Order By). Allbase Performance Suprtool provides you with easy ways to let either Allbase or Suprtool do most of the work. Whether it is best to use Allbase or Suprtool really depends on your specific machine, database, and application. You can use the Select command to force Allbase to do most of the processing or you can use Suprtool to do the work. In our testing, Suprtool consistently sorts 1.5 times faster than Allbase. Your performance improvements may be different from ours, so we recommend that you take some common tasks and try them with both tools. Here is an example of sorting with Allbase and then with Suprtool: Allbase sorts data: >select * from user.account@emp order by ename Suprtool sorts data: >select * from user.account@emp >sort ename Restrictions Suprtool still has the following restrictions in Allbase: 1. Suprtool needs the ownername to select a specific table. For example, >select * from purchdb.orders In this example, the owner is purchdb and the tablename is orders. 2. Suprtool cannot handle the Allbase date format. However, the To_Char function in the select-statement can convert the Allbase date format into something that Suprtool can handle. For example, >select qty,TO_CHAR(date,'YYYYMMDD') from manufdb.testdata >def mydate,date[1],8 {redefine testdate} >item mydate,date,yyyymmdd {define the date format} >if mydate<=$today(-900) STExport There are four enhancements to STExport. The HTML command lets you specify output for web pages. The Delimiter Space option is now the default if you specify HTML Preformatted. The new Heading Column option makes it much easier to specify individual headings for each field in the input source. The Date Invalid option lets you decide how STExport should handle invalid dates in the input source. Invalid Dates By default, all invalid dates are formatted as asterisks. STExport treats any date that does not have a valid century, year, month, or combination (e.g., February 29, 1999) as invalid. You can specify how you want STExport to format invalid dates by using the Invalid option of the Date command. If you specify $date invalid null STExport produces a zero-length field if you specify Column Variable, and spaces if you specify Column Fixed. If you want to specify an explicit string for all invalid dates, do so after the Invalid option. For example, $date invalid "%%%%%" will cause STExport to produce a string of five percent signs for any invalid date. Delimiter Command You can now specify a space between fields, by doing Delimiter Space. If you specify HTML Preformatted, then Delimiter Space is enabled. Heading Command It is difficult to get headings right when you have to specify all the quotes and delimiters with the Heading Add option. Instead, try the Heading Column to specify individual column headings without your having to type in formatting information. STExport then uses whatever quote and delimiter settings apply to byte-type fields. For example, if you specify: Heading Column 'Account' Heading Column 'First Name' Heading Column 'Last Name' Heading Column 'City' Heading Column 'State' and Quote Double and Delimiter Comma are in effect, then STExport produces the following heading: "Account","First Name","Last Name","City","State" Notes You cannot combine the Add and Column options. You must specify one or the other. If you start with Heading Add and then later specify Heading Column, STExport erases the heading you created with Heading Add and starts over with the first column that you specify with Heading Column. Similarly, if you start with Heading Column, a Heading string or Heading Add will start over with a new heading. HTML Command [HT] Use HTML to format web pages for either Internet or Intranet applications. HTML None | Preformatted | Table | Title string | Heading string (Default: None) Web applications expect data in a special format called the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). Use the HTML option to request that STExport format the input file into HTML format. Maximum Size of HTML Files Web browsers often cannot process large documents. The maximum size depends on the browser, the version of that browser, the operating system it's working on, and how much physical memory is present on the client machine. We suggest that you limit your web pages to less than 1,000 lines and restrict the number of columns, unless you are certain that your users can handle larger files. This advice reflects not a limitation of STExport, but a limitation of how web browsers work. Preformatted Format To preserve the columns and spacing of each output line, use the HTML Preformatted command. This command puts an HTML <pre> tag around all the data in the input file. Most web browsers display preformatted text in a fixed-width font such as Courier. Therefore, if you specify HTML Preformatted, you should also select Columns Fixed. Table Format Use HTML Table to create output in HTML table format. STExport creates tables with a border between each column and row. Tables make it easier to read tabular information, but not all browers support tables. Title All HTML documents must have a title. By default, STExport uses the title "This is the Title". You should specify your own title using the Title option. Heading The heading appears before the column headings and the data from your input file. By default, there is no heading. Use the Heading option to specify your own heading. Column Headings If you specify HTML Table, use the Heading command to specify column headings for HTML output. The Heading Fieldnames option produces acceptable column headings, but it is better to use Heading Column to specify a string for each of the fields in your input file. Roman-8 Characters HP 3000 and HP 9000 computers use the Roman-8 character set. The characters in the Roman-8 set are similar to, but not identical with, the ISO-8859-1 character set. Web pages must use the ISO-8859-1 character set. When formatting byte-type fields, STExport attempts to convert any Roman-8 input character into the corresponding ISO-8859-1 character. Those characters that cannot be converted are dropped from the output. The following characters cannot be converted: ⌐ 169 grave mark ¬ 170 circumflex ¼ 172 tilde ╛ 190 function symbol ▐ 222 beta symbol δ 235 capital-S, Icelandic ∞ 236 small-S, Icelandic ε 238 capital-Y, umlaut Notes If you specify HTML Table, STExport sets Quotes None Delimiters None If you specify HTML Preformatted, STExport sets Quotes None Delimiters Space Columns Fixed In either case, changes cause STExport to print a warning to let you know that these options have changed. If you do want quotes around byte-type fields or delimiters between fields, specify these options after selecting the HTML option. Suprtool and the Year 2000 We are in the midst of addressing many of the issues that face data-processing departments at the impending turn of the century. Two-Digit Years Currently the date format of yymmdd collates (sorts) correctly if the date is not beyond December 31, 1999. For example, say that the current date is 961210; this is numerically is less than next year, the date value of which is 971210. At the turn of the century, dates in the yymmdd format (or yymm) will no longer sort correctly because the value of December 10, 2000 (001210) is less than the value of dates before January 1, 2000, (e.g., 961210). Consequently, if we have a date beyond 1999, stored in yymmdd format, a relative operation such as >if date-field >= $DATE(96/12/10) will not find the date of December 10, 2000. If Command and Year 2000 Because dates beyond 1999 will not collate properly for the yymmdd format, the If command now produces an error if the year specified in a $date or $today function is greater than 1999, the date format is yymmdd or yymm, and you are performing a relative operation, such as greater than. Set Date Cutoff Suprtool used to assume 19 for the century for any user-specified $date with a two-digit year. For example: >item date-field,date,ccyymmdd >if date-field <= $DATE(09/12/26) The $date function used to convert the user-specified $date to 1909/12/26 in order for it to be compared to the date-field format of ccyymmdd. Now with Set Date Cutoff xx, we assume 20 for the century if the year specified in the $date function is less than the value of Set Date Cutoff. For example: >set date cutoff 10 >item date-field,date,ccyymmdd >if date-field <= $DATE(09/12/26) Suprtool in this case assumes that the full $date is 2009/12/26 Conversely, if the value of Set Date Cutoff was 5, then the assumed century would be 19. The default value of Set Date Cutoff is 10. Set Date ForceCentury Set Date ForceCentury On does not allow a yy date to be entered in the $date function. Instead, it forces the user to enter a full ccyy date. >set date forcecentury on >item date-field,date,ccyymmdd >if date-field >= $DATE(96/12/10) Error:You must specify the century or Set Date ForceCentury off The default value for Set Date ForceCentury is off. New Date Formats The Item command now supports four new date formats: Format Date-Types ccyymmdd X8 Z8 J2 K2 P10 ccyymm X6 Z6 J2 K2 P8 ccyy X4 Z4 J1 K1 aammdd X6 AAMMDD Date Format The aammdd date format was developed by James Overman of HP for use in their MM3000 product. This format is only available for X6 data-type. AAMMDD is similar to yymmdd, but the year portion of the date uses a combination of numbers and letters of the alphabet to represent years beyond 1999. By substituting a letter of the alphabet in the first position of the year, we can extend a six-digit date and also ensure that the dates collate correctly. For example, YY of AAMMDD CCYY A0 - A9 2000 - 2009 B0 - B9 2010 - 2019 C0 - C9 2020 - 2029 Because letters are greater than numbers in the collating sequence, we can ensure that aammdd dates beyond 1999 will order correctly. Invalid Dates The If command now has a $invalid function to find all invalid dates for a particular field. An invalid date is any number of a particular date format whose date equivalent cannot be found on the calendar. For example, a date with a month of 99 will be considered invalid. >base store.demo Database password [;]? >get d-sales >item deliv-date,date,ccyymmdd >if $invalid(deliv-date) >out baddates,link >xeq Converting Dates Suprtool is capable of converting dates from one format to another using a variety of Suprtool features. You will see how Suprtool can convert common dates without the century to those that have the century included. Although Suprtool can convert your data, it is up to you to change your programs so that they will recognize the reformatted dates as valid. Adager, a third-party program for changing IMAGE database structures, has the ability to change date fields. Suprtool can convert data in IMAGE databases, flat files, self-describing files, and KSAM files. Case 1: Converting a J2 date from YYMMDD to CCYYMMDD Because Suprtool can do arithmetic expressions, you can alter a date to put 19 in front of it. But what if all the dates are not actually dates but rather are filled with 9's as some sort of flag to your application? Say you have a dataset with two date fields, which are J2 items in the date format yymmdd. Database: STORE.DB.GREEN D-SALES Detail Set 5 Entry: Offset CUST-ACCOUNT Z8 1 (!M-CUSTOMER) DELIV-DATE J2 9 PRODUCT-NO Z8 13 (M-PRODUCT) PRODUCT-PRICE J2 21 PURCH-DATE J2 25 SALES-QTY J1 29 SALES-TAX J2 31 SALES-TOTAL J2 35 Capacity: 602 (14) Entries: 10 Highwater: 10 Bytes: 38 First, you need to know and understand your data. Are there invalid dates? If so, does the value have some other logical meaning? Are they, for example, flags for your application? >get d-sales >item deliv-date,date,yymmdd >item purch-date,date,yymmdd >if $invalid(deliv-date) or $invalid(purch-date) >list >xeq >GET D-SALES (9) >OUT $NULL (0) CUST-ACCOUNT = 10010 DELIV-DATE = 999999 PRODUCT-NO = 50513001 PRODUCT-PRICE = 19220 PURCH-DATE = 999999 SALES-QTY = 2 SALES-TAX = 2691 SALES-TOTAL = 21910 >GET D-SALES (10) >OUT $NULL (1) CUST-ACCOUNT = 10010 DELIV-DATE = 125213 PRODUCT-NO = 50513001 PRODUCT-PRICE = 19220 PURCH-DATE = 970135 SALES-QTY = 2691 SALES-TAX = 21910 SALES-TOTAL = 21910 IN=10, OUT=2. CPU-Sec=1. Wall-Sec=1. Two records do not contain proper dates: the first record contains all 9's, which are probably used as some sort of flag. You may need to add an additional leading "99" to dates such as these to match the ccyymmdd date format. The second record, however, is obviously wrong. Use Dbedit to correct this record and continue on to convert the other dates. The point here is that you must know your own data: in order to correctly convert to a new date format, you must understand what are true invalid dates and what are flags that you want to keep. After fixing up the dates that are incorrect you can now get ready to start converting the dates. You can convert prefix 19 in front of all of the appropriate dates by using the following extract statement. Please note that you are updating this directly. So that you can redo this task if it is stopped halfway, you only convert those dates that have not yet been converted. >get d-sales >item purch-date,date,yymmdd >if not $invalid(purch-date) and purch-date < 999999 >update >ext purch-date = purch-date + 19000000 >xeq If you have records containing years between 00 and 10, and they actually represent 2000 and 2010, you should change the If command to update them in a separate pass. The first pass updates all twentieth-century dates: >get d-sales >item purch-date,date,yymmdd >if not $invalid(purch-date) and purch-date / 10000 > 10 >update >ext purch-date = purch-date + 19000000 >xeq The second pass updates those dates in the twenty-first century: >get d-sales >item purch-date,date,yymmdd >if not $invalid(purch-date) and purch-date / 10000 <= 10 >update >ext purch-date = purch-date + 20000000 >xeq You now have converted all the J2 yymmdd dates to ccyymmdd format and added the correct century to the date. Case 2: X6 YYMMDD Data to X8 CCYYMMDD The following Suprtool task shows you how to generate a new file to put into a new database with dates in a different format. Consider the deliv-date and purch-date fields of the D-Sales dataset: Database: STORE.DBOLD.ACCOUNT D-SALES Detail Set 5 Entry: Offset CUST-ACCOUNT Z8 1 (!M-CUSTOMER) DELIV-DATE X6 9 PRODUCT-NO Z8 15 (M-PRODUCT) PRODUCT-PRICE J2 23 PURCH-DATE X6 27 SALES-QTY J1 33 SALES-TAX J2 35 SALES-TOTAL J2 39 Capacity: 611 (13) Entries: 15 Highwater: 15 Bytes: 42 You want to convert to a date format with room for a cc at the beginning of the deliv-date and purch-date: Database: STORE.DB.ACCOUNT D-SALES Detail Set 5 Entry: Offset CUST-ACCOUNT Z8 1 (!M-CUSTOMER) DELIV-DATE X8 9 PRODUCT-NO Z8 17 (M-PRODUCT) PRODUCT-PRICE J2 25 PURCH-DATE X8 29 SALES-QTY J1 37 SALES-TAX J2 39 SALES-TOTAL J2 43 Capacity: 608 (16) Entries: 0 Highwater: 0 Bytes: 46 In order to convert these dates you must put either a 19 or 20 in front of the yymmdd date, depending on the value of the year. Before you can do either of these you must confirm, once again, that you have no invalid dates. >base store.dbold >get d-sales >item deliv-date,date,yymmdd >item purch-date,date,yymmdd >if $invalid(deliv-date) or $invalid(purch-date) >list >xeq Once you have confirmed that there are no invalid dates you can start converting the dates that you have. Because there are two date-fields in this dateset, you must be careful to add the appropriate century for the proper field. For this example, you assume that if a year is less that 1950 then the century should be 20. You can easily convert each date by processing each field separately using an intermediate self-describing file: >base store.dbold,1 Database password [;]? >get d-sales >set squeeze off >item deliv-date,date,yymmdd >if deliv-date >= $DATE(1950/01/01) >out sales01,link >ext cust-account >ext "19" >ext deliv-date / sales-total >xeq IN=15, OUT=14. CPU-Sec=1. Wall-Sec=5. Now insert 20 to the century for the appropriate records: >base store.dbold >get d-sales >if deliv-date < $DATE(1950/01/01) >ext cust-account >ext "20" >ext deliv-date / sales-total >out sales01,link,append >xeq Now you can convert the other field from the flat file, (Sales01) and add a century to the purch-date field: >reset >base {close the open database} >in sales01 >item purch-date,date,yymmdd >if purch-date >= $date(1950/01/01) >set squeeze off >out sales02,link >ext cust-account / product-price >ext "19" >ext purch-date / sales-total >xeq IN=15, OUT=15. CPU-Sec=1. Wall-Sec=1. Because you extracted all 15 records you know you do not have any records with the purch-date field that need to be updated with a 20. You can insert the records into the new database: >base store.db >in sales02 >put d-sales >xeq Now you have converted two dates from X6 format to an X8 format. Case 3: Different Date Formats X6 MMDDYY Data to X6 YYMMDD The following Suprtool task shows you how to convert a date in a self-describing file from mmddyy to yymmdd format. Consider the following self-describing file with the deliv-date and purch-date fields: File: SALES04.DATA.ACCOUNT (SD Version B.00.00) Entry: Offset CUST-ACCOUNT Z8 1 DELIV-DATE X6 9 <<MMDDYY>> PRODUCT-NO Z8 15 PRODUCT-PRICE I2 23 PURCH-DATE X6 27 <<MMDDYY>> SALES-QTY I1 33 SALES-TAX I2 35 SALES-TOTAL I2 39 Limit: 115 EOF: 15 Entry Length: 42 Blocking: 97 You want to convert these two dates to a format of yymmdd, before adding a century in front of the year. This can be easily accomplished by defining each sub part of the date, and extracting those parts in the new order. >in sales04 >def deliv-date-mm,deliv-date[1],2 >def deliv-date-dd,deliv-date[3],2 >def deliv-date-yy,deliv-date[5],2 >def purch-date-mm,purch-date[1],2 >def purch-date-dd,purch-date[3],2 >def purch-date-yy,purch-date[5],2 >ext cust-account >ext deliv-date-yy >ext deliv-date-mm >ext deliv-date-dd >ext product-no / product-price >ext purch-date-yy >ext purch-date-mm >ext purch-date-dd >ext sales-qty / sales-total >out sales05,link >xeq You now have a file with the dates in yymmdd order, but the self-describing information shows three separate fields. File: SALES05.DATE.ACCOUNT (SD Version B.00.00) Entry: Offset CUST-ACCOUNT Z8 1 DELIV-DATE-YY X2 9 DELIV-DATE-MM X2 11 DELIV-DATE-DD X2 13 PRODUCT-NO Z8 15 PRODUCT-PRICE I2 23 PURCH-DATE-YY X2 27 PURCH-DATE-MM X2 29 PURCH-DATE-DD X2 31 SALES-QTY I1 33 SALES-TAX I2 35 SALES-TOTAL I2 39 Limit: 115 EOF: 15 Entry Length: 42 Blocking: 97 You can convert these several fields to one field with another extract task: >in sales05 >def deliv-date,9,6,byte >def purch-date,27,6,byte >item deliv-date,date,yymmdd >item purch-date,date,yymmdd >ext cust-account >ext deliv-date >ext product-no >ext product-price >ext purch-date >ext sales-qty / sales-total >out sales06,link >xeq IN=15, OUT=15. CPU-Sec=1. Wall-Sec=1. You now end up with a file that looks like this: File: SALES06.DATA.ACCOUNT (SD Version B.00.00) Entry: Offset CUST-ACCOUNT Z8 1 DELIV-DATE X6 9 <<YYMMDD>> PRODUCT-NO Z8 15 PRODUCT-PRICE I2 23 PURCH-DATE X6 27 <<YYMMDD>> SALES-QTY I1 33 SALES-TAX I2 35 SALES-TOTAL I2 39 Limit: 115 EOF: 15 Entry Length: 42 Blocking: 97 You then add the century to these fields as described above. Bugs Fixed Allbase. The following problems in Allbase access have been fixed: 1. Suprtool now properly sets Char fields to spaces if the values in the Allbase column are null. 2. Suprtool now correctly reports the length of VarChar columns. 3. Suprtool would fail with strange errors if the input source was a large SQL table. Chain Command. The Chain command no longer requires a specific reset when a "Missing quote" syntax error occurs. Edit Command. Dbedit no longer allows invalid numbers in double integer fields. This was caused by a bug in the NM version of the DBINARY intrinsic. Export Command. STExport now accepts *filename as a back reference to a file equation. STExport can now build an output file that is large enough to handle a combination of Columns Fixed and Heading Fieldnames options. STExport no longer puts a trailing comma on the Heading line. STExport no longer truncates large numbers when they are formatted with decimal places and signs. Extract Command. An obscure error message was printed when a conversion or arithmetic expression overflowed the target field. For example, assume that sales-qty has values greater than 100. The following commands will result in overflow: >get d-sales >define small-field,1,2,display >extract small-field = sales-qty >output somefile >xeq Error: Overflow of arithmetic expression Input record number: 0 Form Command. The Form command now correctly shows the Item attributes of a specified field when the input source is an IMAGE dataset. Table Command. The Table command now prints a warning when a fieldname specified does not exist in the self-describing file. If Command. The If command produced an error if you were comparing two packed-decimal fields with a different number of decimal places. Output=Input. Suprtool treats an Output=Input operation as an error if the input file is self-describing and the extracted record size is not the same as the input file. This operation previously would create files where the data did not match the self-describing file. Progress Messages. When selecting data from IMAGE datasets the number of records reported with In= was incorrect. STExport. The following problems in STExport have been fixed: 1. When STExport created variable-length output files, a lot of disc space could be wasted. This happened whenever there was a big difference between the input files EOF and LIMIT. 2. The Default option of the Floating command was spelled incorrectly. 3. When converting Double Integer fields to ASCII, spaces were left at the end of the record. 4. If the input source had compound date fields, the Xeq command would produce an error message about an invalid date type rather than just processing the date field correctly. Item Command. Calendar dates beyond 1999 are now being handled properly. Output Command. Suprtool no longer fails with an "Extent size exceeds maximum" error when it attempts to build very large output files. Sort Command. Suprtool no longer fails with an "Illegal DB register setting" error when it sorts very large output files. Total Command. The Total command no longer upshifts filenames. Verify Command. The Verify All command no longer prints the SQL information twice. Verify Command. The Verify command without parameters now prints out Select command information. QLIB and Bonus Enhancements Suprtool comes with an array of contributed tools in the QLIB library. Your Robelle license may also entitle you to receive our five Bonus programs. All of these tools are updated throughout the year, not necessarily in sync with Suprtool or any other Robelle product. If you have the Bonus programs, you may only use them on appropriately licensed CPUs. The QLIB programs, however, may be used on any CPUs and given away freely. The most recently released Bonus and QLIB tools are as follows: Bonus Contributed Compare/iX 2.4 Helpcomp 2.2 HowMessy 2.4 Printdoc 1.5 Select 3.6 Prose 4.1 Spell 1.5 Pscreen 89C Xpedit 1.5 Qcopy 4.3 Qhelp 2.2 Bonus Programs Since the last major release of Suprtool, the following Bonus programs have been enhanced with these new features: Compare/iX 2.4 The NM Compare program compares two text files and prints out the differences for you. Compare works with both Suprtool workfiles and regular Keep files. The input filenames can be specified in the Info= string. See Compare.Docchg.Robelle for a detailed change notice for Compare. HowMessy 2.4 HowMessy provides fast reports on the internal efficiency of your database. Now use HowMessy to report statistics on IMAGE/SQL datasets larger than 4 gigabytes. See HowMessy.Docchg.Robelle for a detailed change notice for HowMessy. Select 3.6 Select is a menu front-end that works on any terminal, allowing people to select tasks from a list of choices. User commands (and UDCs) support 32 parameters and :Escape. Variable-length and Qedit-type command files are allowed. See Select.Docchg.Robelle for a detailed change notice for Select. Spell 1.5 Spell is a fast spelling checker for the HP 3000 that reads both Qedit and EDIT/3000 files. Spell can read Qedit's new Jumbo files. Xpedit 1.5 Xpedit is a simple screen editor that is handy for editing small files using VPLUS block-mode. Inverse video was added to some error messages to make them stand out more prominently. See the file Xpedit.Docchg.Robelle for a complete description of Xpedit's changes. QLIB Programs Since the last major release of Suprtool, the following QLIB programs have been enhanced with these new features: Printdoc 1.5 Printdoc is an easy-to-use utility for printing Robelle manuals and other documentation. Printdoc now supports LaserJet 4 and 5 printers. Prose 4.1 Prose is the text formatter that we use for all our documentation, from user manuals to on-line Help. Prose can now read Jumbo text files that are wider than 256 characters. Prose can also generate RTF output with the .out (rtf) command. See the Prose.Docchg. Robelle file for a detailed change notice for Prose. Qcopy 4.3 Qcopy is a contributed program that reads and writes Qedit files. Its Qeditaccess routine decodes the files for Qcopy. Although Qeditaccess can read Qedit's new Jumbo files, it cannot write them. Qhelp 2.2 Qhelp is an on-line user help facility that you can tie into your own software. We use it ourselves in all our software products. Appendix: Non-Robelle Installation Suprtool is usually installed on your HP 3000 in the Robelle account. The installation instructions earlier in this change notice make that assumption. However, you can easily install Suprtool into another account by following these general guidelines: 1. Create or upgrade the structure of your account 2. Restore the files into your account 3. Alter any installation jobs to log on to your account 4. Stream the installation jobs For example, to install Suprtool into an account called Tools and into the same groups as Suprtool would have used in the Robelle account (Pub, Doc, Help, etc.), follow these steps. Step 1: Upgrade Account Structure With a text editor, change all account references in the Robelle.Pub.Sys job from "robelle" to "tools." Don't worry about changes to some of the comments in the job. Note that this job will change the capabilities, access flags, and logon password of the Tools account. Examine the job carefully to ensure that the changes do not cause problems for other software in the Robelle account. :run qedit.pub.robelle /text robelle.pub.sys /change "robelle"(upshift) "tools" all Step 2: Restore Files Restore the files into your account, which is Tools in this example. :file suprtape;dev=tape :restore *suprtape;@.@.robelle Steps 3 and 4: Alter and Stream Installation Jobs Now log on to the Tools account instead of the Robelle account. :hello mgr.tools :run qedit.pub.robelle Before streaming any jobs, you must alter them so that they log on to the Tools account instead of the Robelle account. Make the following change to each job in the Suprjob, Job, and Purgejob groups: /text install.suprjob /change "robelle"(upshift smart) "tools" all /keep /exit :stream install.suprjob We have used Robelle's Qedit text editor to make the required changes to the account name in this example, but you can use any editor. Just make sure that all occurrences of "robelle" are changed, regardless of whether "robelle" is in uppercase, lowercase, or mixed case. Only change "robelle" when it is a separate word, not when it is embedded in a longer word.