Course Description

The first day opens with a brief review of the data modeling concepts of relational databases. The remaining time is spent reviewing SQL for DB2. While SQL is in many respects common amongst relational databases, this section not only provides a general overview, but also points out some of the specific syntax requirements of DB2. The second day provides a review of some of the DB2 architecture components and gives a solid review of the DB2 program preparation process - pre-compile, compile, bind, etc., including the role of DB2 plans and packages. A discussion of SPUFI is included with accompanying exercises. The day ends with a discussion of the program requirements for accessing DB2 tables - host variables, DCLGENS, etc. The third and final day introduces error handling techniques, considerations for implementing application-enforced referential integrity and cursor processing.

The students write two programs - with and without cursors - to reinforce the concepts

 Audience

This course is intended for those who have experience with programming with COBOL or another development language like Assembler, but need additional background using DB2 as the application data source.

 Objectives

Upon completion of this course, students should be proficient in accessing DB2 for reporting or data maintenance using COBOL or another development language.

 Prerequisites

Prior development experience using COBOL or another mainframe development language.