Lesson 2. How to Include Only Certain Records from the SMF File

Comparators and Logical Connectors

1. The following conditional operators are supported: <, <=, =, >=, >, and ¬= or <>. Spectrum SMF Writer also has these 2 special operators : (contains) and ¬: (does not contain) that scan a field for the specified text.
2. Your expression can contain any number of conditions, separated with the words AND and OR , optionally preceded by NOT , nested as needed within parentheses. You can also use the symbols & , | and ¬.

Character Literals

1. Character literals must appear within single or double quote marks. To embed the same quote character within the literal, double it. The following are all valid examples of a character literal:
2. 'JONES'
3. "JONES"
4. 'JONE''S'
5. "JONE'S"
6. Character literals can also be specified in hexadecimal format by prefixing the literal with an X , like this: X'FFFF'

Numeric Literals

1. Numeric literals should not be contained within quotes. No punctuation is allowed other than a minus sign and a decimal point.

Date Literals

1. Date literals should be in either MM/DD/YY or MM/DD/YYYY format (leading zeros not required).
2. If you use YY in your date literals, it is understood to represent a year between 1951 and 2050. However, you can specify your own cutover year by specifying the CENTURY option.
3. you may want to specify the following option near the beginning of your control statements:

OPTION: DDMMYYLIT

This option indicates that all date literals in the control statements will be in DD/MM/YY or DD/MM/YYYY format.

Comparing Dates

1. One very powerful feature of Spectrum SMF Writer often takes some getting used to by programmers. If they have used other report writers, programmers are used to matching the format of their date literal with the format of the raw data in the record being tested. For example, if a record contains packed Julian dates, programmers usually have to look up the desired date in Julian and then write their comparison literal in the same packed Julian date format.
2. With Spectrum SMF Writer, this is not necessary. The program automatically handles all required date conversions for you. So, whether a raw field is stored in the record as a packed Julian date, a character YYYYMMDD or MMDDYY date, an 8-byte STCK date, or a binary day in century (to name a few of the formats), you always write your comparison dates in MM/DD/[YY]YY format.
3. As an example, even though the SMF14DTE field is stored in the SMF record in packed P'CYYDDD' format, you just test it like this:

INCLUDEIF: SMF14RTY= 14 AND SMF14DTE >= 6/30/2010 AND <= 7/13/2010

1. The only exception would be if a field has accidentally been defined (in the copy library) as a plain character or numeric field (rather than a true date field). In that case, you do need to compare it with a character or numeric literal of the same format. In that case, you may also want to change the field's definition (in the copy library). Just locate the correct FIELD statement and add a TYPE parm that specifies one of the dozens of Date Data Types listed in Appendix A of the Reference Manual. Then you will be able to test that field using date literals. (And the field will also be formatted correctly as a date in the report output.)

Time Literals

1. Time literals should be in 24-hour HH:MM or HH:MM:SS[.DDD...] format.

Comparing Times

1. Once again, you do not need to be concerned with exactly how a time or interval field is stored in the SMF record. As long as the field is defined as a true time field, Spectrum SMF Writer automatically handles all required conversions for you. So, whether a field is stored in the record as packed seconds since midnight, character HHMM , an 8-byte STCK time, or binary microseconds since midnight (to name a few examples), you always write your comparison times in HH:MM[:SS] format.
2. For example, even though the SMF14TME field is stored in the SMF record as hundredths of a second since midnight, you will test it like this:

INCLUDEIF: SMF14RTY= 14 AND SMF14DTE = 9/1/2010 AND SMF14TME >= 13:00 AND < 14:00

1. Again, if a time field has accidentally been defined as a regular character or numeric fields then you will need to compare it with a character or numeric literal of the same format. Or you can locate the correct FIELD statement in the copy library and add a TYPE parm that specifies one of the dozens of Time Data Types listed in Appendix A of the Reference Manual. You may also need to add a DEC(n) parm to the FIELD statement, if the time field contains decimal parts of a second.

Comparing a List of Values

1. If you want to compare a field to a list of values, you can use this shorthand format:

INCLUDEIF: SMF14JBN = 'ACCT1000' OR 'ACCT1100' OR 'ACCT1200'

1. Or to exclude a list of values, use this format:

INCLUDEIF: SMF14JBN <> 'ACCT1000' AND 'ACCT1100' AND 'ACCT1200'

Syntax for Continuation Lines

1. Often the INCLUDEIF statement will be too long to fit on one control statement. (Spectrum SMF Writer uses columns 1 through 72 of each statement. Anything in columns 73-80 is ignored.) You may continue your INCLUDEIF statement onto as many lines as needed. Just be sure to begin each continuation line with a blank in column 1.
2. If you need to break a literal onto multiple lines, continue up to column 72 in one line and resume it in column 2 of the next line.