Starting a Browse or Edit Session

To access the Browse function, select option 1, Browse, from the Primary Option Menu. To access the Edit function, select option 2, Edit, from the Primary Option Menu. The Browse or Edit Option screen displays (Edit (or Browse) Options screen).

Edit (or Browse) Options screen

Specify Db2 Table Area

Location ID

Optional. Location of the table or view you plan to edit. Specify a value if you want to browse or edit a table not at your current location. Wildcard characters (*, _, %) are valid. See Wildcard-Characters for more information.

If you enter a wildcard character in this field, the Location Selection pop-up (Location Selection Window) displays.

Creator

ID of the person who created the table or view you plan to edit. Wildcard characters
(*, _, %) are valid. See Wildcard-Characters for more information.

If you enter a wildcard character in this field, the Edit Table List (Edit Table List Window) displays.

Table Name

Name of the object you want to edit. Tables, aliases, synonyms and views are valid. Wildcard characters (*, _, %) are also valid. See Wildcard-Characters for details.

If you enter a wildcard character in this field, the Edit Table List (Edit Table List Window) displays.

Optional Area

Database

Name of the database to which you want to confine your selection list.

Tablespace

Name of the tablespace to which you want to confine your selection list.

Specify Selection Criteria Information Area

Selection Criteria Usage

Specify whether you want to use a previously saved selection criteria dataset. Selection criteria consists of conditions to limit and order column selection and/or row selection based on column values.

Specify the letter that represents the activity you want to perform:

Criteria Display Format

Specify whether selection criteria is to be entered on the Template, or as native SQL. This field only applies when the Selection Criteria Usage field is T (Temporary), or M (Modify).

Specify the letter that represents the activity you want to perform:

Criteria Dataset Name

If you specify M (Modify) or E (Existing) Selection Criteria Usage, specify an existing sequential or partitioned dataset with RECFM=FB and LRECL=80. File-AID for Db2 prefills this field with the name of the last specified selection criteria data set.

If you specify T (Temporary) Selection Criteria usage, a temporary data set (hlq.userid.SYSyyddd.Thhmmss.SHOW.SQL) containing the SQL source is created. An ISPF edit session is initiated, enabling you to edit the SQL. If you want to save the SQL source, you must use the ISPF CREATE or COPY command to a permanent data set before exiting the edit session. The temporary data set will be deleted when returning to the Edit (or Browse) Options screen.

Member

Specify the member of the data set you want to use. The field is prefilled with the last specified member name. If you leave this field blank or specify an asterisk (*), File-AID for Db2 displays the Member List for the data set. Specify a pattern, for example PART*, to narrow down the member list to the matching member names. The asterisk (*) is the only valid pattern character.

Specify Edit Options Area

Initial Display Mode

Enter the desired initial display mode. This field is updated with the last mode in use before exiting your edit session.

See Display-Modes for more information.

Lock Table During Edit

Indicate whether you want exclusive access to the table during Edit. (See Locking a Table During Edit for more information.)

Use Uncommitted Read

Specify whether to enable retrieval of uncommitted data for the browse or edit session. The field is prefilled with the last specified value (YES or NO) or as specified with the UNCOMMITTED_READ_DEFAULT parameter of the Db2 Environment PARMLIB member. For more information, see UNCOMMITTED_READ_DEFAULT in the Db2 environment.

Maximum Rows to Select

Specify a numeric value indicating the maximum number of rows to be selected, or specify an asterisk (*) to select all rows. The default value is retrieved from User Parms (Option 0). See Browse-Edit-SQL-Analysis-Display-Options for information on changing the default. See Maximum Rows to Select for more information on this field.

SELECT FROM Temporal Table

Enter Yes if you want to specify or modify a time-period and date/timestamps for temporal tables or Temporal Views. File-AID will display the SELECT FROM Temporal Table screen (refer to SELECT FROM Temporal Table) when you press Enter. Temporal table support requires Db2 Version 10 or more recent. Starting with Db2 Version 11, temporal support allows period specifications and period clauses to be specified for views. The same rules apply for views as do for tables.

Enter No (default) if you don’t want to display the SELECT FROM Temporal Table screen.

The status *Defined* displays if a SELECT FROM Temporal Table statement has already been defined, otherwise *None* displays.

Create Audit Trail

Indicate whether you want to create an audit trail for your Edit session. This field may not be present on your screen. See Creating an Audit Trail Dataset for a detailed explanation of this feature.

Relationship File

Optional. Enter the name of the file that stores your relationship definitions. You must specify this file to browse or edit related tables. See Related-Table-Browse-and-Edit-function for more information.

Memory Utilization Window

The Memory utilization window allows you to provide information to File-AID for Db2 so that the proper memory utilization for your actions will be obtained.

The Memory Utilization window (see the following figure) is displayed when you enter the MEMORY command from the Edit Options or Browse Options screen.

Memory Utilization Window

There are two areas that require larger memory than others: The Expansion area for new rows, and the Work area for commands.

Expansion area for new rows

When you use the INSERT, REPEAT, COPY and PASTE commands to add new rows to a table, an area in memory is required to expand for the new rows. This area is called the Expansion area. For most users, the default values are acceptable and will allow commands to be processed as needed.

The Expansion area for new rows field allows you to specify the percentage of available memory to be used for new rows. Use the following as a guide to specify this percentage:

If you try adding more rows than the expansion area can accommodate, the command fails and the error message “Insufficient Memory” is displayed. If you press PF1, the longer error message is displayed, which indicates approximately how many rows can be added. You can execute the command again, based on the amount of memory available, or start the session again with fewer rows.

Specifying Selection Criteria or a smaller number for Maximum Rows to Select may reduce the number of rows to be processed and leave more room for adding data. You can also specify a larger value for the expansion area, which may indirectly cause fewer rows to be loaded.

Work area for commands

The Work area for commands field allows you to influence whether File-AID for Db2 will begin to process your command or not. For most users, the default values are acceptable and will allow commands to be processed as needed. However, the commands REDIT, RBROWSE, GRAPHIC, SORT, and multiple nested edit and browse sessions require a larger work area in memory.

Specify this value in number of kilobytes (K). In other words, when you specify 3000, you are specifying 3000K. If the memory size specified is not available, the command fails and the error message “Insufficient Memory” is displayed.

Save these values

Allows you to specify if the changed values are to be saved and used in the future. Default is N (No). If you specify N, the changed values will apply only to the current edit or browse session, until you return to the Edit Options or Browse Options screen. If you specify Y, the changed values are saved until you change the values again.

Location Selection Window

The Location Selection window displays if you type an asterisk or wildcard character in the Location field on the Edit Options screen. The window provides you with a list of locations to be selected. If you press END from this window without selecting a location, File-AID for Db2 uses the current location.

Location Selection Window

Selection Criteria Member List

The Selection Criteria Member List displays if you left the Selection Criteria Member field on the Edit Options screen blank or entered a * pattern. It provides a list of members of the specified Selection Criteria data set.

Member Selection Criteria List screen

Edit Table List

The Edit Table List window displays when you enter a wildcard character in the Creator and/or Table Name field on the Edit Options screen. It provides a list of tables or views to be selected for browsing or editing.

Edit Table List Window

SELECT FROM Temporal Table

The SELECT FROM Temporal Table window displays when you enter Y in the SELECT FROM Temporal Table field. It allows you to construct the SELECT FROM statement to be used for a temporal table (or view starting with Db2 Version 11) to be browsed (System Period and Business Period) or edited (Business Period only).

SELECT FROM Temporal Table

A temporal table records the period of time when a row is valid. Db2 supports two types of periods, the application period (BUSINESS_TIME) and the system period (SYSTEM_TIME).

System Period

The system period consists of a pair of columns with system-maintained values that indicate the period of time when a row is valid. The system period is meaningful because you can define system-period data versioning on a table that has this period. System-period data versioning specifies that old rows are archived into another table. The table that contains the current active rows of a table is called the system-period temporal table. The table that contains the archived rows is called the history table (Table Type=H). You can delete the rows from the history table when those rows are no longer needed, if you have the proper authorization.

When you define a base table to use system-period data versioning, or when you define system-period data versioning on an existing table, you must create a history table, specify a name for the history table, and create a tablespace to hold that table. You define system-period data versioning by issuing the ALTER TABLE ADD VERSIONING statement with the USE HISTORY TABLE clause.

Application (Business) Period

A business (application) period consists of a pair of columns with application-maintained values that indicate the period of time when a row is valid. A table with only a business period is called an application-period temporal table.

Bitemporal Table

A bitemporal table is both a system-period temporal table and an application-period temporal table. You can use a bitemporal table to keep application period information and system-based historical information. Therefore, you have a lot of flexibility in how you query data based on periods of time.

For each System Time and Business Time, specify the time period to be used to select rows from a temporal table.

Use System Time

Specify Yes if the table includes System Time and you want to select rows from the specified period.

Time period

Select the period method you want to specify for System Time:

Timestamp 1

Specify the corresponding start timestamp for the selected system time period.

Timestamp 2

Specify the corresponding end timestamp for the selected system time period. Only required for FROM and BETWEEN periods.

Use Business Time

Specify Yes if the table includes Business Time and you want to select rows from the specified period.

Time period

Select the period method you want to specify for Business Time:

Date/Timestamp 1

specify the corresponding start date/time for the selected business time period.

Date/Timestamp 2

specify the corresponding end date/time for the selected business time period. Only required for FROM and BETWEEN periods.