Question

wrkmsg – How can I sort messages alphabetically?

Is there any possible way to sort those messages in a way that I like to have them?

Answer 1

I’m assuming you mean that you want to sort the message definitions stored in a message file, rather than the current contents of a message queue. You can create a database table (ie. a file) to receive the message descriptions, and then do whatever you’d like with those records.

Normally you can DSPMSGD to a print file. But we will create a physical file or table, and override the output of the DSPMSGD command to our file. The first three records are trash, for our purposes, and we will discard them using CPYF from a workfile into our final file.

Make things easier by setting your library as current.

CHGCURLIB mylib

You could define your files in DDS, but I’ll demonstrate this in SQL.

STRSQL

To create your work file and result file:

CREATE TABLE qtemp/workfile
( x1      char(1),
  msgid   char(7),
  sev     char(2),
  msgtxt  char(132)
)

CREATE TABLE myfile
( msgid   char(7),
  sev     char(2),
  msgtxt  char(132)
)

Exit SQL to return to a command line.

Override the output file for the DSPMSGD command to your work file, and collect your data.

OVRDBF QPMSGD workfile
DSPMSGD RANGE(*FIRST *LAST) MSGF(some_msgf) 
    DETAIL(*BASIC) OUTPUT(*PRINT)
CPYF workfile myfile MBROPT(*replace) 
    FROMRCD(4) FMTOPT(*MAP *DROP)

You can now go back into SQL and see the fruits of your labor.

STRSQL

SELECT *
 from myfile
 order by msgtxt