Where's my data?
- TAGS:database, DB2, mainframe
- IT TOPICS:Development, Mainframes & Supercomputers, Management
This mainframe database pilot fish doesn't have to deal much with dumbness from users. But application programmers? That's a different matter.
The problem? "With the advent of DB2 version 8, many of the columns in the DB2 catalog become longer," fish explains. "For example, the column named CREATOR -- which is the owner or schema of the table -- changed from a length of 8 to a maximum length of 128. That is quite a change.
"Despite my repeated warnings about these changes, and despite the creation of views against the DB2 catalog tables that made the new tables look like the old ones, I still have programmer people who run a query and claim that only the column named CREATOR is being returned.
"After all, only 80 characters show up on the screen. It never occurs to them to scroll to the right to see more data.
"And they are still doing this, even though we have had DB2 version 8 installed for over two years!"
Two years? Heck, Sharky's been doing this every day for a decade, and some people still haven't sent me their true tales of IT life at sharky@computerworld.com. Do it today -- you'll score a sharp Shark shirt if I use it. Add your comments below, and read some great old tales in the Sharkives.
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