What you can do with an exported UNIX file, TSO data set, or CICS data queue

The QMF EXPORT and IMPORT commands on data objects are useful in several situations.

For example, you can use the IMPORT and EXPORT commands to accomplish these goals:

• Provide query results to your application

  Use the QMF EXPORT command to get data out of the database and into your application.

• Create objects within your application and use them in QMF

  You can create an object outside of the QMF environment by using the appropriate format for the object. For example, in the case of data or tables, when you import the UNIX file into QMF, a new QMF object is created. A new object is also created when you import a TSO data set or CICS® data queue that contains the object.

  You cannot import reports, charts, or CSV files into QMF. For reports and charts, you can instead import the data and the forms that were used to create them.

• Make QMF objects available to other environments or products.
  Attention: Use caution when transferring exported objects between systems with different CCSIDs or character sets, such as between EBCDIC and ASCII systems, or between different NLF environments. Transferring the objects between systems in this way might render them unusable.

  If you need to import a prompted or QBE query into a program other than QMF, you must first use the CONVERT QUERY command. The CONVERT QUERY command converts the query to an SQL query that you can export and use in other products.

  You can transfer QMF objects between QMF under TSO, ISPF, or native z/OS® batch. You can also transfer QMF objects under CICS by using CICS extrapartition transient data queues.

• Save objects and data outside of the database

  For example, in the middle of a program, you can export your data so that an external program can manipulate it.

• Create bilingual applications

  You can create a QMF form in your presiding language and translate it to English by using the LANGUAGE option on the EXPORT command. You can also use the LANGUAGE option on the IMPORT and EXPORT commands to translate an English form to your presiding language.