I'm new into AS400 and I got a job where I'm using AS400 and Powerlink (XA) to access and manage big ERP data. And I found a way to access the data through Excel VBA and SQL using the System I Nagivator tables.
My problem is that I can't find the correct Schemas>Tables in Navigator to feed the excel VBA that matches the data that I want in AS400.
Question: let's say I want to find the price for an item, and I want to find the price table in Navigator. Is there a way in AS400 to get the price table name that matches the same table in Navigator ?
This is my first question please let me know if more information is needed.
Please help, thank you!
First a little terminology, AS/400 is an old term, the current name for the Platform and OS that used to be called AS/400 is now IBM i on Power Systems. IBM i is the OS. (that is until IBM changes the name again)
If You Know the Table Name but not the IBM i Object Name
On IBM i, the database is built into the OS and many of the OS objects are in fact database objects. Here is how some of the SQL concepts map to IBM i terms.
SQL IBM i
-------------- ------------------
Schema Library
Table Physical file
Index Logical file
View Logical file
Row Record
Column Field
Unfortunately in IBM i, object names are limited to 10 characters. SQL names on the other hand can be up to 128 characters. You won't find a Physical file named CustomerMaster. DB2 maps that long name to a system name. You can find the system name by querying the catalog like this:
select system_schema_name, system_table_name
from qsys2.systables
where table_name = 'Navigator name'
The column TABLE_NAME will hold the long SQL name of the table, SYSTEM_TABLE_NAME will hold the IBM i object name. Note that long schema names can be mapped to system names as well. The column SCHEMA_NAME holds the long SQL name of the schema while SYSTEM_SCHEMA_NAME holds the IBM i library name. It is uncommon for schema names to be longer than 10 characters, so the two schema name columns are typically the same.
If You Know the Program Name, and Have Access to the Source
This may be obvious to you, but I am putting it here just for completeness. You can look in the source for the files being used, and back track from the screen field to the file.
If You Only Have A Green Screen
You can retrieve the open files for the current job if you have the appropriate authority. If this doesn't work for you, you will have to get help from your system administrator, or someone who does have authority. This will only get you candidate files though, and likely they are logical files. To do this, you are going to have to have authority to view your job, and you will have to know how the system request key is mapped to your keyboard (that is implementation specific, and may be customized, so you will have to check with someone inside your company or your emulator to determine that).
With that behind us, start the green screen program that shows the price field you are looking for. Then press the system request key. If you are configured to allow this, you will get an input line on the bottom of your screen, and the cursor will be positioned to it.
Press Enter.
You should now be in the System Request menu.
Select option 3 and press enter again. You should be in the Display Job screen for your current job.
If this all worked correctly for you, then option 12 will show you the files that your job currently has a lock on. That is, the files that are open for your job. The price field should be in one of them.