RE: dynamically store a rolling six years of data in a table and havemeaningful column field names and descriptions that can changeyear-to-year?

["Paul Nelson" <nelsonp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I did this at a JDE client, where I had a field name of FY for future year,
CY for current year, CY1 for current year minus one, and so on.

When it came time to populate the file, I tested the current year against
the sales history transaction date and plugged the data into the appropriate
field.

I did this with SEQUEL, but it should be doable with some other method as
well.

Paul Nelson
Office 512-392-2577
Cell 708-670-6978
nelsonp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx


-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
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Sent: Tuesday, November 01, 2011 1:30 PM
To: midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: dynamically store a rolling six years of data in a table and
havemeaningful column field names and descriptions that can
changeyear-to-year?

How can we redesign this application to dynamically store a rolling six
years of data in a table and have meaningful column field names and
descriptions that change year-to-year?

We have a custom IBM i table with 12 monthly columns for the year 2007,
12 fields for 2008, 12 for 2009, and 36 for 2010, 2011, and 2012.
Sales history is summed and put into the appropriate month buckets.  
The data is downloaded to a spreadsheet and imported to a Windows sales
forecasting application which puts Forecast data is put into future year
buckets.  
We upload Future year data to our IBM i Sales Forecast File F3460 (JD
Edwards World).

In January 2012 I will need to delete the 12 fields for 2007 and add 12
fields for 2013 and modify the RPG program accordingly.

What redesign would allow us to dynamically store a rolling six years of
data in a table and have meaningful column field names and descriptions
that change dynamically from year-to-year?  So that I would never need
to modify the RPG program nor the file?