DB2 SQL Application Programming

Course Overview

Suitable for the BCS Mainframe Technology professional Exams for level 2 Senior Developer.

This course focuses on using efficient SQL on all platforms and using appropriate host languages in the business applications environment. Through a combination of lectures and a progressive series of workshops, the audience will gain a solid grounding in SQL and how it is used interactively and embedded in host language programs. Many other DB2 issues are also covered, including how to address performance concerns, exploring the system catalog, batch and interactive issues, and DB2 product enhancements in versions 8 and 9.

Audience

Application programmers and designers seeking more in-depth knowledge about IBM's DB2 database (up to DB2 9) under z/OS and LUW platforms.

Prerequisites

The participant should have some knowledge of the relevant application language (eg. COBOL, Java, C++ etc...). Please inform Verhoef of the language and platform in use when booking the course.

Course Outline

Introduction to DB2 and the Relational Model

• Origin and history of the RDBMS and DB2.
• Advantages and disadvantages of the Relational Model.
• DB2's basic logical and physical objects.
• Subsystems/Instances
• Databases
• Tablespaces
• storage groups
• tables
• MQT

The SQL Language

• ANSI standard SQL data-types and relational extenders.
• Principles of SQL data-retrieval.
• Projection
• Selection
• Join
• Basic SQL data-retrieval.

Boolean Operators

• ORDER BY
• GROUP BY
• UNION
• LIKE
• DISTINCT
• BETWEEN, etc.
• Case Expressions.
• Using Case in the Select list, and in the WHERE clause.
• Built-In Functions.
• Aggregate functions
• Scalar functions
• User-defined functions.
• Full sets
• Sub-Queries.
• Standard and correlated nested sub-queries.
• Joins.Inner.
• Joins.
• Nested table expressions
• Common table expressions
• Resolving join performance issues.
• Data modification.
• INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE statements.
• Rules of referential integrity.
• CTE's

Embedded SQL

• Host language variables and the DCLGEN facility.
• Structured Error-handling techniques.
• SQLCA information, WHENEVER, and related issues.
• Working with NULLS.
• Cursor Processing statements.
• DECLARE
• OPEN
• CLOSE
• FETCH
• ROWSETS
• Working with Updateable cursors.
• Commit and Rollback processing.
• 2-phase commit protocol.
• Compiling embedded SQL programs.
• Host language considerations.
• The DB2 precompiler and BINDing
• Options
• Issues.
• Locking protocols, isolation levels, etc.
• Stored Procedures.
• When and how to utilise, in each applicable version.
• The Development Center and cross-platform procedures.
• Triggers

Performance Issues

• Understanding the relationship between design and performance.
• Normalization and de-normalization.
• Row layout and free-space considerations.
• Understanding the DB2 Optimizer.
• Detailed examination of access paths in DB2.
• Query and CPU parallelism.
• RUNSTATS/REORG
• Optimizer enhancements in the latest release.
• Stage 1 vs. Stage 2 predicates.
• Indexes.
• Types of indexes
• Clustered
• Partitioned
• Type of Index
• Volatile
• Advantages and disadvantages of indexes.

DB2 SQL Application Programming / DB2SQL (DB2SQLGB)