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A super tool for your data extraction and sorting needs

NewsWire TestDrive

Review by John Burke

Robelle Consulting's Suprtool is a lightning fast utility for extracting data and optionally sorting it from MPE flat files, IMAGE databases, Allbase tables, KSAM files and even magnetic tape.

Suprtool's strength is its speed and versatility. It can operate in standalone mode, but is most effective when used to improve the performance of 3GL and 4GL programs. A typical Suprtool session consists of extracting and possibly sorting data, then feeding the Suprtool output file into the final report program. For example, many people use Suprtool with Quiz. They fill a Quiz subfile with the sorted subset of qualified records, then feed that subfile into Quiz for final reporting and formatting. The Suprtool User Manual contains application notes on using Suprtool with Quiz, Speedware, Transact, COBOL and other programs.

In standalone mode, Suprtool can even be used as a quick-and-dirty reporting tool, since its LIST command supports counting and subtotaling.

In 1996 Robelle announced support for jumbo datasets. Suprtool can read IMAGE/SQL jumbo datasets, so called because they can be greater in size than the normal 4Gb MPE/iX file limit. Output files and sort scratch files are, of course, still limited to 4Gb. Robelle delivered the Allbase Database Access option last year, which allows you to read Allbase tables and sort selected records, and added the STExport module for exporting data.

This year Robelle is introducing enhancements directed at helping Suprtool customers cope with the Year 2000 Problem.

Key modules within Suprtool include Dbedit, for the interactive editing of IMAGE databases, which includes key value update; Suprlink, for merging

information from multiple sources; Speed Demon -- an alternative to serial DBGETs for 3GLs -- processes serial reads up to five times faster; STExport, for exporting data to other applications, and Suprtool2, for accessing Suprtool from within 3GL programs.

Documentation
One of my pet peeves has always been the generally poor quality of software documentation. It gives me great pleasure to report that Robelle's documentation for Suprtool is far and away the best of any commercial product I have ever reviewed, either for publication or for in-house use. The Suprtool User's Manual is thorough, well indexed, easily understood and full of examples. This last item I find particularly refreshing. The documentation also explains the theory behind the product and discusses what factors can effect its performance. There is an 18-page pocket guide that also includes many examples. Online help is extensive and well organized.

The documentation is also available in Microsoft Windows WinHelp format. You download it as a compressed self-extracting ZIP file to your PC from your HP 3000 using Reflection. Then you install it as you would any other PC software. Robelle also gives you the means to print complete copies of the manual locally. An example of how seriously Robelle strives for quality documentation: even though I was given a pre-release copy of Suprtool version 3.9.13 for this Test Drive, both the online program HELP and the WinHelp HELP files were completely up to date on all the version 3.9.13 features and enhancements.

Usability
Suprtool has a simple, yet powerful set of commands. Robelle claims that a handful of Suprtool commands can often replace hundreds of lines of COBOL or other 3GL code. To prove the claim, Robelle uses the example of archiving invoices stored in an IMAGE database that are more than one year old:

Command	What it does
get invoices	IMAGE dataset
item invoice-date,date,yymmdd	define data format
if invoice-date < $date(*-1/*/*)	select entries
output invhist	produce archive file
delete	delete selected
xeq	execute above commands

How's that for powerful? To see how easy it is to become productive with Suprtool, consider Figure 1. I did it within an hour of unpacking the Suprtool materials. I took a 250,000-plus record file as input (INPUT command), defined some of the fields (DEFINE and ITEM commands), created a select statement (IF), specified sort parameters (SORT command), created an intermediate self-describing (SD) file (EXTRACT and OUTPUT commands) and, finally, called STExport using the EXPORT command of Suprtool to create a comma-delimited, quoted string file suitable for input into most PC-based applications.

Performance
Around 1980 someone introduced me to the benefits of MR NOBUF I/O for serial reads. I've used the technique on flat files with great success for many years. One of Robelle's earliest contributions was to take the technique, wrap it up in a general purpose utility (Suprtool) and then extend it to cover IMAGE databases. Many claim that Suprtool reduces CPU overhead to one-eighth the overhead of serial DBGETS.

Robelle cautions that Suprtool provides the greatest performance gain when users select less than 50 percent of the entries from the data source. The bigger the source file and smaller the subset, the greater the savings. It is not unusual to see a five-fold improvement in speed over conventional I/O techniques.

Suprtool uses its own built-in sort algorithm which takes half the scratch space of HP's sort, accommodates larger record sizes and performs about 20 percent faster.

Suprlink is used to link fields from multiple files with a common key value into a single composite file. Instead of performing thousands or even hundreds of thousands of random I/O table lookups, Suprtool first does rapid serial reads and selects of all the files containing data needed for the final report. The Suprlink module then sorts/merges/matches the results into one composite file for final reporting. In many cases, this provides a significant performance improvement over the traditional DBFIND/DBGET table lookup technique. Performance is optimized if the composite record is kept as short as possible by extracting only those fields necessary for the linkage and the final report.

Year 2000 considerations
Suprtool can be used to convert dates from one format to another in IMAGE databases, flat files, self-describing files and KSAM files. The ITEM command supports four new date formats: CCYYMMDD, CCYYMM, CCYY and AAMMDD, the new MM3000 format. The IF command can be used to hunt out invalid dates with the $INVALID function. A SET DATE CUTOFF command determines in which century a two-digit year belongs. Finally, the IF command will generate an error under certain circumstances when dates are being compared and the century of one or more can not be determined.

Exporting data
STExport (Suprtool Export) is a 1996 addition to Suprtool. It can operate standalone or can be called directly from within Suprtool. STExport takes as input a self-describing input file and produces a field delimited output file that can be imported into many different applications, including most popular PC and Unix applications. (See Figure 1 for an example using STExport from within Suprtool.) The HTML command of STExport will format the output for use in Internet or Intranet applications. With Suprtool, you will no longer need to write and maintain a collection of custom export programs.

Conclusion
If you have not considered Suprtool in a while, it is time to take another look. Robelle continues to enhance the product with very useful features such as STExport and the Year 2000 extensions. And if you are thinking you may need a hardware upgrade, because your batch reports and systems are not completing in the allotted time window, you definitely should consider Suprtool before writing out a big check to HP. The product is extremely powerful and will significantly reduce the wall time of any applications that do serial reads and sort. And its first class documentation make it easy to become productive within hours of receiving the product.

Suprtool runs on MPE V, MPE/iX and HP-UX systems. It supports IMAGE jumbo datasets and can also create files of exported data in formats readily usable by PC applications.

Robelle has a one-price-fits-all policy for Suprtool. Basic Suprtool, which includes IMAGE Database Access and runs on MPE V and MPE/iX, has a license fee of $4,000 for the first CPU and $2,000 for each additional CPU. The Allbase Database Access Add-On costs $1,500 for each CPU. The Suprtool license fee includes the first year of support, which is available by telephone, fax or e-mail. After the first year, support is available on an annual contract at 20 percent of the current license fee. A 30-day evaluation copy is available upon request.

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