Using Select Statement Edit to limit the data retrieved by FM/Db2

You can use the Enter, execute and explain SQL statements function (option 4.3) to enter a SELECT statement and display the results in a File Manager/Db2 editor session. In general, if you want to view or edit a Db2® table or view, View (option 1) and Edit (option 2) are recommended. However, you can specify the columns to retrieve using option 4.3.

For example, the following statement retrieves all columns from the DSN8810.EMP table:

SELECT * FROM DSN8810.EMP

However, the following statement retrieves only the listed columns:

SELECT EMPNO, FIRSTNME, MIDINIT, LASTNAME, WORKDEPT, PHONENO,
HIREDATE, JOB, EDLEVEL, SEX, BIRTHDATE FROM DSN8810.EMP

You might use this method when editing a table with many columns, most of which are of no interest to you. Alternatively, if the Db2® object has a wide row, omitting long VARCHAR or VARGRAPHIC columns may dramatically reduce the amount of data retrieved by FM/Db2 and loaded into the editor.

Note: When you omit columns from a Db2® object, you may find that not all edit operations are possible. For example, inserting a new row will fail if any of the omitted columns is defined as NOT NULL.

Related tasks

Related references