Friday, April 25, 2025

Have issues? Communicate! A brief look at Db2 SQLCA

Db2 command line output with printed SQLCA
With many conflicts and problems, big and small, going on, communication is important. So, why not take a brief look at the Db2 SQL Communications Area (SQLCA)? According to the Db2 documentation, an SQLCA is a collection of variables that is updated at the end of the execution of every SQL statement. It provides the structure to pass important information from the database product to the user or application.

Wednesday, March 12, 2025

Db2 for your data lakehouse

Db2 as engine and data source
for the data lakehouse
A while ago, I was working with IBM watsonx.data to prepare a presentation on data lakehouse solutions. When talking about the (query) engines for a data lakehouse, typically, it is mostly about Presto and Spark. Did you know that Db2 can be used both as data source AND as query engine in watsonx.data (see screenshot)? Let's take a look...

Monday, February 24, 2025

Db2 catalog: Updated documentation links to database metadata

New Db2 metadata created
In 2017 I wrote the post "Db2 Catalog - A guided tour", a title which I also use for some of my talks at user group meetings and conferences. It contains some now outdated links to the Db2 documentation. Time for an update, so that I can find that important information quicker again. And maybe you too...

Thursday, February 6, 2025

Db2: Loading and unloading of data on remote clients with external tables

Unload Db2 data to remote client
Today, I am going to take a look at another variation of external tables. They can be used to load data from a remote Db2 client or unload data to that client - directly from or into a file. I tested it with the Db2 CLP and with a Python script and it was quite easy.