Mainframe ISPF Commands(3 Of 5)

21) I am not able to delete a dataset that resides on a tape.

A. Yes. You cannot delete/rename a tape dataset. Only you can uncatalog it.

ISPF Editor

22) How do I see only those lines that contain a particular string?

A. Type ‘X all’ then ‘F all ‘search-string’

23) Now I want to see only those lines that contain a particular value in the display I get after doing an ‘X all, F all’.

A. Type ‘ F new_value all nx’. ‘nx’ will restrict the search only to the displayed lines.

24) How do I go to a particular line numbers ?

A. Use ‘L search-string’ command. This is the Label command.

25) I want to find for a search-string that is Not prefix/suffix of another word. I want to find for an instance of a search-string that is whole word by itself. How can I do this?

A. Use keyword ‘word’ at the end of find command. E.g., ‘f job word’ will find for the whole word ‘job’.

26) How do I specify the direction of search i.e., how do I search for a string in backward / forward direction (w.r.t., your current cursor position)?

A.

Direction

Keyword

Example

Backward

PREV

F ‘job’ PREV finds for string ‘job’ in backward direction

Forward

No need to mention any keyword. It’s default direction

F ‘job’ finds for string ‘job’ in forward direction.

From the beginning of the file

FIRST

F ‘job’ FIRST finds the first instance of sting ‘job’ in the file.

Count of all instances in file

ALL

F ‘job’ FIRST finds the first instance of sting ‘job’ in the file and gives total-no-of-instances of sting ‘job’ in the file.

27) How do I search for a value say ‘0980312’ stored in comp-3 format?

A. Type F X’0980312’.

28) How do I do case sensitive search find for a given search-string?

A. Just, enclose the search-string within quotes and have a letter C in front of the string itself. For e.g., F C’FindMe’ will find all FindMe strings only if the case matches.

29) How do I find for any non-blank characters?

A. Use picture string ‘^’. E.g., “F P’^’ 36” will find the next non-blank characters in column 36.

30) How do I find for any numeric character?

A. Use picture string ‘#’. E.g., 1. “F p’#’” finds the next numeric character. 2. “F ‘PAGE ##’ will find the next instance of the string ‘page followed by a blank followed by 2 numeric characters’.