Have you been memorizing field names or relying on F4 prompting?

When creating file joins using interactive SQL (STRSQL), it's sometimes difficult to remember the field names that you want to join. I typically don't memorize field names and totally rely on the F4 prompting to get the names from the "SELECT fields" line.

Unfortunately, sometimes I can't use this method because I have not yet created a valid "FROM files" clause. So I'm stuck with the "CUSTOMER inner join SALES" on the "FROM files" line and no field names to complete the join clause. Creating a second session and performing a DSPFFD command would solve the problem, but here's a quicker, easier solution.

On the "FROM files" line, enter your file-level joins (CUSTOMER left join SALES). Then, enter an "absolute positive" field-level join criteria like ON 1=1.

FROM files . . . . . . . . .   CUSTOMER inner join SALES         

                               on 1=1                         

Since the files are now correctly joined, you can tab down to "SELECT fields" and press F4 to prompt the file field names. Select the fields using odd numbers on the first file fields and even numbers on the second file fields.

Seq  Field              File              TEST

1    CUCNBR             CUSTOMER          Customer Number

3    CUCRGN             CUSTOMER          Customer Region

     CUADD1             CUSTOMER          Customer Address 1

     CUADD2             CUSTOMER          Customer Address 2

     CUCITY             CUSTOMER          Customer City

2    SLCUNO             SALES             Customer Number

4    SLCURG             SALES             Customer Region

     SLORNO             SALES             Order Number

     SLORTY             SALES             Order Type

     SLORDT             SALES             Order Date

Press Enter. Your selected fields will return in the order that matches.

CUSTOMER.CUCNBR, SALES.SLCUNO, CUSTOMER.CUCRGN,

SALES.SLCURG                             

Cut and paste the fields from the "SELECT fields" lines to the "FROM files" lines and format by replacing the comma with equal signs (=), and's, and or's.

FROM files . . . . . . . . .   CUSTOMER inner join SALES                     

                               on CUSTOMER.F1FLD1 = SALES.F2FLD1  and        

                                  CUSTOMER.F1FLD2 = SALES.F2FLD2             

SELECT fields  . . . . . . .   *                                          

Steven Goetjen is an accomplished IS professional with years of technical and business experience managing projects and teams in consulting firms and major financial institutions. He can be reached at www.linkedin.com/in/StevenGoetjen.