New features and changes for IBM InfoSphere Information Server, Version 8.7

New features and changes were introduced for IBM® InfoSphere® Information Server, Version 8.7 along with documentation updates. The new and changed features and documentation updates are described in the following sections.

Table of contents

InfoSphere Information Server, Version 8.7, new features and changes:

• Common capabilities across the InfoSphere Information Server suite
  • Administering
  • Connecting to external sources

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The tsort operator

WebSphere DataStage provides the sort operator, tsort that you can use to sort the records of a data set. The tsort operator can run as either a sequential or a parallel operator. The execution mode of the tsort operator determines its action:

• Sequential mode: The tsort operator executes on a single processing node to sort an entire data set.

How to generate Sequence Numbers in DataStage using @INROWNUM and @PARTITIONNUM System Variables

This is one of the basic requirement in DataStage, we'll have to generate sequence numbers and then assign the same values to your required O/P field (e.g. 1, 2, 3, …). If you are using the import osh operator (through a stage, e.g. the Sequential File Stage) to read external data, you can use the -recordNumberField parameter.

Solution: Generate Row Number Field with DataStage Transformer Stage

There are number of different ways to solve this problem. Here I will share with you the easiest way to generate and assign sequence numbers using a DataStage Parallel Transformer stage.

@PARTITIONNUM + @NUMPARTITIONS * (@INROWNUM - 1) + 1

Note: This logic only works if your data is evenly balanced i.e., equal number of rows going through each partition.

The above logic uses three DataStage system variables which are listed as below;

@INROWNUM – This system variable contains the row number within the partition. For each partition this variable starts from 1: 1, 2, 3, …
@NUMPARTITIONS – This system variable contains the number of partitions (1, 2, 3, …) the stage is running on.
@PARTITIONNUM – This system variable contains the number (0, 1, 2,…) of the partition that is processing the particular row.
To understand the derivation expression better, let’s see an example.

Example-1: Generating Sequence Numbers Using 2-Node Config File

	2 NODE CONFIG FILE
Sample Field	@INROWNUM	@PARTITIONNUM	@PARTITIONNUM + @NUMPARTITIONS * (@INROWNUM - 1) + 1
A	1	0	1
B	1	1	2
C	2	0	3
D	2	1	4
E	3	0	5
G	3	1	6
H	4	0	7
I	4	1	8
J	5	0	9
K	5	1	10
L	6	0	11
M	6	1	12
N	7	0	13
O	7	1	14
P	8	0	15
Q	8	1	16
R	9	0	17
S	9	1	18
T	10	0	19
U	10	1	20
V	11	0	21

Example-2: Generating Sequence Numbers Using 4-Node Config File

	4 NODE CONFIG FILE
Sample Field	@INROWNUM	@PARTITIONNUM	@PARTITIONNUM + @NUMPARTITIONS * (@INROWNUM - 1) + 1
A	1	0	1
B	1	1	2
C	1	2	3
D	1	3	4
E	2	0	5
G	2	1	6
H	2	2	7
I	2	3	8
J	3	0	9
K	3	1	10
L	3	2	11
M	3	3	12
N	4	0	13
O	4	1	14
P	4	2	15
Q	4	3	16
R	5	0	17
S	5	1	18
T	5	2	19
U	5	3	20
V	6	0	21

New features & changes in IBM InfoSphere Information Server 8.5

New features and changes were introduced in IBM® InfoSphere™ Information Server, Version 8.5 along with documentation updates. The new and changed features and documentation updates are described in the following sections.

Table of contents

InfoSphere Information Server, Version 8.5, new features and changes:

Suite and product module changes

IBM InfoSphere Business Glossary

IBM InfoSphere DataStage