FAQ: Database Variables

What are CoolSpools Database variables?

CoolSpools Database variables

The CoolSpools Database commands that convert database files support a number of special values known as CoolSpools Database variables on certain command parameters. Those special values are replaced at run time with a piece of data, for example a database file attribute.

Each CoolSpools Database variable consists of a pre-defined variable name from the list below enclosed in the markers <: … >; (start of variable marker = left-hand angle bracket followed by a colon, end of variable marker = colon followed by a right-hand angle bracket).

You can define a different pair of markers from <: and >; by adding/changing the environment variables CS_VAR_LEFT_MARKER and CS_VAR_RIGHT_MARKER. For example, if you have CS_VAR_LEFT_MARKER set to $% and CS_VAR_RIGHT_MARKER set to %$, you would use $%MBRTEXT%$ rather than <:MBRTEXT>; etc.

These variable names, including the markers, are replaced at run time by the corresponding data value. Variable names are not case-sensitive.

Variable name	Description
<:CURJOB>	Current job name
<:CURUSER>	Current user id
<:CURJOBNBR>	Current job number
<:FROMFILE>	Name of the database file specified on FROMFILE
<:FROMLIB>	Library specified on FROMFILE
<:FROMMBR>	Member name specified on FROMFILE
<:RCDFMT>	Name of the record format in the file specified on FROMFILE. Invalid if more than one record format is selected for processing.
<:FILETEXT>	File-level text of the file specified on FROMFILE
<:MBRTEXT>	Member-level text of the member specified on FROMFILE
<:RCDTEXT>	Record format-level text of the record format in the file specified on FROMFILE. Invalid if more than one record format is selected for processing.
<:QRYDFN>	Name of the Query/400 query object specified on the QRYDFN parameter
<:QRYDFNLIB>	Library name specified on the QRYDFN parameter
<:QMQRY>	Name of the QM Query object specified on the QMQRY parameter
<:QMQRYLIB>	Library name specified on the QMQRY parameter
<:STMFEXT>	Default file extension corresponding to the format being output (e.g. ‘.CSV’ when CSV being generated or ‘.XLS’ when an Excel file is being created.
<:TOFMT>	To-format. The format of the data being generated (corresponding to the TOFMT parameter of the CVTDBFSTMF command), .e.g. ‘*CSV’, ‘*XLS’
<:CURDATE>	The current date in the format of the current job (DATFMT attribute).
<:CURDATE*xxx>	The current date in the format indicated by *xxx, where *xxx is any one of: *YMD, *MDY, *DMY, *YYMD, *MDYY, *DMYY, *CYMD, *CMDY, *CDMY, *ISO, *EUR, *JIS, *JUL, *LONGJUL, *JOB or *SYSVAL.
<:CURDAY>	The current day of the month as a number 01-31.
<:CURMONTH>	The current month as a number 01-12.
<:CURYEAR>	The current year as a number 0001-9999
<:CURYEAR4>	The current year as a number 0001-9999
<:CURYEAR3>	The current year as a number c01-c99 where c is 0 for the 20th century and 1 for the 21st.
<:CURYEAR2>	The current year as a number 01-99.
<:CURTIME>	The current time in hhmmss format.
<:CURUSEREMAIL>	The email address of current user. The email address is the SMTP email address of the user from the system directory.
<:CURUSERNAME>	The name of the current user. The name is derived from the information held for the user in the system directory.
<:CURUSERHOME>	The home directory of the current user. The home directory is taken from the HOMEDIR attribute of the user profile.

Example:

CVTDBFXL FROMFILE(QADSPOBJ)
              TOSTMF('<:fromlib>_<:fromfile>_<:frommbr>.xls')
              EMAIL(*YES)
              EMAILTO((<:CURUSEREMAIL>))

Here the CVTDBFXL command is being applied to a database file called QADSPOBJ. The name of the stream file to be generated will be derived from various the library name, file name and member name, e.g.:

QGPL_QADSPOBJ_QADSPOBJ.XLS