SEQUEL offers a number of timesaving functions to help you perform tasks that used to take multiple query steps, or couldn’t be done without a special program. You can use your System i data as useful business intelligence information—quickly and easily.
- Automate Multi-Step Tasks with Scripting
- Convert Dates
- Run Complex Tasks
- Database Operations and Data Reformatting
- Access J. D. Edwards Database Information
- Import Existing Objects to SEQUEL Views or Reports
- Open SEQUEL Data in an Excel Spreadsheet
- Use Robot/SCHEDULE to Submit SEQUEL Jobs
Automate Multi-step Tasks with Scripting
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Scripts help you automate a series of commands, or create multiple-step job streams to complete complex tasks. It gives you much of the capability of Control Language (CL) without needing technical programming knowledge. SEQUEL’s Enhanced Scripting lets you add powerful CL-like programming structures, including loops, internal variables, conditional logic, and error monitoring to your SEQUEL scripts.
Convert Dates
SEQUEL simplifies date conversion and comparison operations. SEQUEL can convert single- or multi-field dates from packed, zoned, or character formats to the i5/OS date data type. You can use SEQUEL to:
- Present a date field in as many as 10 different date formats
- Compare different date values regardless of format (for example, MDY vs. YMD)
- Determine the difference (in days) between two date values
- Determine end of month or end of year dates by adding or subtracting days, months, or years
- Order database records by date value
Run Complex Tasks
You can use the Run Command (RUNCMD) list processor to perform iterative processing based on data from a SEQUEL view. For example, RUNCMD can include a SEQUEL view that uses conditional statements to extract a subset of customer numbers and related data from a System i database file. RUNCMD then processes a series of commands, programs, or a SEQUEL script for each customer. Each iteration of RUNCMD can receive field values from the original SEQUEL view as substitution variables.
RUNCMD lets you automate complex, multi-step processes that require customized output, such as invoices, or other customer-specific statements, that are sent via e-mail in the same operation. You also can use the command to process output using multi-member physical files with variable layouts.
Expand Your Database Operations and Data Reformatting Options
Besides standard arithmetic and trigonometric operations, SEQUEL supports:
- Date, time, and timestamp data types
- Conversion of existing fields to date data types
- Conversion of character to numeric data
- Conversion of zoned numeric to character data
- Uppercase conversion
- Hexadecimal conversion
- Logical (bitwise) manipulation
- Record level functions (MIN, MAX)
- Character string operations (CAT, BCAT, TCAT, STRIP, TRIM, SUBSTR)
- Variable length character fields
- ROWID (to access a relative record number)
- USERID access
- CURRENT DATE access
Access J. D. Edwards Database Information
SEQUEL simplifies access to J.D. Edwards (JDE) database information. SEQUEL automatically converts data and links field attribute information from JDE data dictionary files to transaction files to create a new view of the data, without changing the original dictionary database files. Just run a command when you first install SEQUEL, or whenever the data dictionary files are changed. After that, it’s easy to access the information using SEQUEL, another query program, a spreadsheet, or another third-party reporting tool. You get the information you need without having to translate decimal positions or decipher cryptic field descriptions.
Import Existing Objects to SEQUEL Views or Reports
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Use SEQUEL’s Import function to convert query definitions (*QRYDFN), query management queries (*QMQRY), and query management forms (*QMFORM) to SEQUEL views or reports. Select queries by name, generic name, or all queries in one or more libraries and place the converted views or reports in the library of your choice.
Open SEQUEL Data in an Excel Spreadsheet
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SEQUEL allows you to display results directly in a Excel spreadsheet without running a view or creating a file. A new SEQUEL toolbar in Excel lets you easily get the data from an existing SEQUEL view or table into your spreadsheet.
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Use Robot/SCHEDULE to Submit SEQUEL Jobs
SEQUEL's easy-to-use interface to Robot/SCHEDULE, the automatic computer operator, job scheduler, and batch management system, lets you access Robot/SCHEDULE job settings and submit SEQUEL output as batch jobs.