Can I use VB? (VB)

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I have a problem and I need to know if VB can help out or if anyone can give me some input.

I have a database written in Paradox and I want to take the data and download it into our AS400. Our payroll system is written in cobol. The computer people are saying that this is impossible, however, I feel like nothing is impossible. Could I generate some VB code to take the data out of Paradox and then download into the cobol file?

Can anyone provide me some answers?

Thanks,
Deborah

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Of course you have the right idea. You should be able to do this. But first check out Access. You many be able to import the Paradox data into an Access db, then output that data into a cobol formatted file. You’ll need the Paradox converter (I hope Access has a Paradox converter!) Doesn’t sound that hard, really. My big “career data migration project” was moving IBM System 34 data (created using RPGII) to a client server system written in PowerBuilder. You’re going the other way, but that’s nothing. Who are these IT people saying it’s impossible? Must be some politically-minded impediment behind such ignorance. A PC person telling us data center primadonna’s what can be done? Who ever heard…..

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Thanks!

I now have another question. They are telling me that I must convert to ASCII before I can download. How can I do this? The database contains data and pictures. It is used for making picture IDs. Can I do this?

Deborah

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The Paradox data is probably already in ASCII.

On second thought, why not just export the data from Paradox to an ASCII text file.
Then import the data into an Access db.
Then export the data from Access according to the cobol record structure.

You could do all this without Access if Paradox has a export utility that can format the data for the cobol file structure (it should).
I only mention Access because I know it has great import/export functionality.

You still need to know:

1) The record structure for the cobol data file. Columns 1-10 = firstname; columns11-25 = lastname, etc.
2) A method to upload the data file to the AS400. I forget the name of the IBM file transfer program. But the AS400 should support FTP at the very least.
3) A physical connection to the AS400. Or the ability to email the file to a user on the AS400 system.

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If your database contains pictures, which are bit images, then it cannot be converted to an ASCII file. Well, I suppose that’s awfully strong, but a picture with any decent resolution will run several tens of KBytes even if it is heavily compressed. I’m not familiar with the AS400 – I’ve avoided it at all costs – but there are ODBC drivers available that will work with Access and let you read and write data on an AS400. The big issue is going to be getting the pictures transferred if they are actually stored in Paradox, but I suspect they may be stored as separate files with a link to them – at least that’s the way we do it in Access most of the time.

Let me suggest that we move this thread to the Access forum where more people may have had experience with Paradox and/or AS400 databases. I’ll ask Charlotte if she can do that as I’m not a mod in this forum. edited immediately by WendellB to add the following, as his mouse clicking got a little quick. In any event, you shouldn’t have to resort to VBA or VB in order to convert the data.

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