Compare Database Table Data Files

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* This code may be used and distributed under the GNU public licence.
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meta_qa: A generic program for auditing data quality by comparing a 
	delimited input file or SQL with a database table using
	matching key columns.
        Typical uses would be to detect errors and analyse in 
	interfaces (code, scheduling, timing) and data conversions.
Copyright (C) 2007  Mark Besaans

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA  02110-1301, USA.

Refer to gpl.txt distributed with this file.

Contact obscured Email address: wwmbes at Woolworths dot co dot za
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Instructions for using meta_qa are in a MS-word document which 
is in the meta_qa tarball.

Input files should be pipe delimited and begin with 
a HEADER| and pipe delimited target-table column-names.
Output is a spreadsheet of the errors detected at key/column level.
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Instructions to compile meta_qa (a generic program for detecting differences 
   between source data files and target data in tables).

1) Make sure you have a working Informix 4gl environment.
	It needs to be the 64 bit version for the 4glaccess.c file 
	and in the "compile" script, both the interpretive and machine 
	code versions will be attempted.
2) Run the compile script.
3) If you want to see how it works with some meta-data, create the 
   meta data table using the .sch file and then load the .unl data file into it
   for demonstration purposes.
4) Run the program with -h or -help to display the command line options and 
   parameters.
5) Read the documentation that is displayed by the -help.
6) Prepare a pipe delimited input file with the a header line beginning 
   with "HEADER|". Each field in the header should contain the name of 
   a column in the table that is to be audited. (Alternatively provide a file
   containing SQL of which that final SQL uses column aliases matching the 
   target-table column-names exactly statement and can drive a database cursor.)
7) Run the program with the command-line options you require.
8) Check for warnings and error messages.
9) Analize the .xls tab delimited spreadsheet audit trail file of differences 
   that is produced.
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