Some Commands and Shortcuts for the MVS ISPF Editor

This document lists some of the more common ISPF editting commands and the PF key shortcuts. There is also a brief overview of the editor and its "philosophy"

ISPF Overview

ISPF editor is a strange mix of in-place editting like emacs in overwrite mode and line oriented editors like vi. Strictly it is page oriented and within a page you can move the cursor, overtype existing text or type new text.
There is a command field opposite each line into which you can type line commands to copy, delete or move lines. These take effect the next time you hit enter.
There is also a command-line at the top of the screen similar to the ':' prompt in vi or the M-x prompt in emacs (or the DO key for all you VMS/TPU users...). Here you type commands like 'DOWN 200' to move 200 lines down the file.
Finally there are the Function (PF) keys which can be tailored somewhat to your own requirements and allow you to split screen (actually giving a new TSO session!), page up/down etc.

Note that the editor in Infoman is a subset of ISPF - only the most basic commands work in either the command line area or the command field.

ISPF PF Keys

PF1 Help screen
PF2 Split screen at current cursor position - starts a new TSO/ISPF session.
PF3 End - return to previous task saving edits
PF4 Return - Don't know what this actually does!
PF5 RFIND - Repeat last find command
PF6 RChange - Repeat last change(replace) command
PF7 Page up - behaviour depends on scroll settings
PF8 Page Down - behaviour depends on scroll settings
PF9 Swap - swap screens if split
PF10 Left - Move screen window left
PF11 Right - Move screen window right
PF12 Retrieve - Command history

ISPF Command line commands

The most useful are:

UP [n] - where n is the number of lines to move up.
DOWN [n] - where n is the number of lines to move down.
F[ind] :string: - Finds the string

prepending the string with 'C' makes it case sensitive
prepending the string with 'P' treats as a PICTURE string - like a "regular expression"

# = number
@ = alpha
$ = non alpha
> = uppercase
< = lowercase

R[eplace] :string: - Replace the string.

Other useful commands include:

TE [n] - Text Entry - Gets rid of the left hand ' ' ' ' ' and line number columns giving a straight text entry screen. The argument limits the range to the next N lines.
TF [n] - Text Flow - ie reformat the text to fill lines etc. The argument limits the range to the next N lines.
X [n] - EXCLUDE - Hides next N lines (or using XX hides the defined block.)
RESET - Restores hidden lines
SORT <n> <m> - Sort based on columns N to M
SORT <.L1> <.L2> - Sort between 2 labels - labels are values in the ..... region beginning with a '.'
SEARCH - like find but the following have special meaning:

SEARCH <string> PRE - find where word begins with <string>
SEARCH <string> SUF - find where word ends with <string>
SEARCH <string> WORD - find where <string> is a word

COLS - display a ruler like display - useful when using SORT.

ISPF In-Line Commands

The In-Line commands come in 2 varieties. Single letter commands act on a single line. These include A, B, I etc. Range Commands consist of double letters marking the start and finish of a range. Thus CC will be entered at the start line and finish line of a region to be copied. An A will insert the copied block into the file starting on the line after the one with the 'A'.
The most common Line Commands are listed below(* means a range can be specified):

A - After - Pastes buffer text after marked line
B - Before - Pastes buffer text Before marked line
C* - Copy marked line/range
D* - Delete marked line/range
I - Insert - Open a new line for inserting text(no paste)
M - Move - Moves marked line/range to an A or B position (There must be an A or B defined)
R - Repeat - Copies the current line/range to immediately after itself (needed since you can't put a C and an A on the same line...)

Note: You have to be careful when specifying multiple commands in the same screen that you don't try to copy a deleted line etc. The commands are performed in sequential order. You will get a reasonably helpful error message if you do get too clever for your own good!

That should be enough to be going on with. There are lots more things you can do but you'll need to find and ask an ISPF expert for that - try somebody in ASG!...