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[William Collins]

Taking note of Kolusu (and Frank Yaeger) and experimenting is how I learned.

You mean you removed the OUTFIL to see what was happening? Yes, good move. You can always start off with one statement (or those things which you already know what they do) and then add statements one at a time, and look at the output at each stage.

First thing, know the data. Then notice that "if only I could have the data like that, then I could do it". Then work out how to get the data like that.

WHEN=GROUP is really powerful. For instance, you can't intermingle IFTHEN=(WHEN=(logical expression within WHEN=GROUP (WHEN=GROUP and WHEN=INIT are processed first, in order written, and they can be intermingled). So sometimes you use WHEN=GROUP with a condition and RECORDS=1 just to do an "IF" at the correct point.

[misi01]

Agree completely, William. I also generally test like that (especially with DB2 selects that "should" return data. Comment out one AND at a time until you get something, then you know which condition is "wrong").

Trouble with complicated stuff (like the WHEN=GROUP for me) is that you can muck around 'til the cows come home and still never get nearer the answer.
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Michael