AS400 RUNSQL to printer output

AS400 CL question:

Is it possible to use RUNSQL statement in batch CL program to generate a spool file for printing, like we can do with STRSQL + Shift F1 (Modify attributes)?

trying RUNSQL. I don't see any options to redirect output.

Solution

No.

In fact RUNSQL doesn't even support the SELECT statement

The following statements can be used by RUNSQL:

ALTER FUNCTION

ALTER MASK

ALTER PERMISSION

ALTER PROCEDURE

ALTER SEQUENCE

ALTER TABLE

ALTER TRIGGER

CALL

COMMENT

COMMIT

compound (dynamic)

CREATE ALIAS

CREATE FUNCTION

CREATE INDEX

CREATE MASK

CREATE PERMISSION

CREATE PROCEDURE

CREATE SCHEMA

CREATE SEQUENCE

CREATE TABLE

CREATE TRIGGER

CREATE TYPE

CREATE VARIABLE

CREATE VIEW

DECLARE GLOBAL TEMPORARY TABLE

DELETE

DROP

GRANT

INSERT

LABEL

MERGE

REFRESH TABLE

RELEASE SAVEPOINT

RENAME

REVOKE

ROLLBACK

SAVEPOINT

SET CURRENT DECFLOAT ROUNDING MODE

SET CURRENT DEGREE

SET CURRENT IMPLICIT XMLPARSE OPTION

SET CURRENT TEMPORAL SYSTEM_TIME

SET ENCRYPTION PASSWORD

SET PATH

SET SCHEMA

SET TRANSACTION

TRANSFER OWNERSHIP

TRUNCATE

UPDATE

RUNSQL is designed to support DBA/DBE tasks, not reporting.

If you have the interactive SQL facility available, via STRSQL, then you also have the Query Manager tooling. Use the STRQM command to get into the interactive version to define queries and their output forms. The prompted mode looks a lot like Query/400, aka WRKQRY. But QM is SQL based and you can create queries in non-prompted mode by entering an SQL statement.

Once you've created a QM query, you can use the STRQMQRY command to run it from the command line or a CL program. Works fine for quick and dirty reports.

Of course IBM, would prefer you get with the times use Web Query. It is a much nicer product and does support batch reporting. But I believe it's still extra cost and isn't what I would call a quick and dirty solution.