As a developer, you can usually (ok, well, more than "usually") find me working on ISPF (Interactive System Productivity Facility). So for this blog, I thought I'd share some of my favorite and most used ISPF commands. If you are an experienced ISPF user, perhaps these are some of your faves too, and if not, these are definitely some commands I recommend you try out.
- Block column shifts
- Place a pair of "((" or "))" around a block of code to shift the code left or right. By typing a number after the closing block command, you can specify exactly how many columns you want the code to be shifted left or right.
- I find this particularly useful in ISPF Edit when I'm working on a module and discover that a chunk of code needs to be placed in an IF/ELSE/ENDIF block or needs to be further nested in an SPM (Structured Programming Macro...see other blogs for more info.). Much easier than manually indenting the code, especially when you have more than just a few lines you want to shift.
- Block exclude
- Place a pair of "xx" around a block of code to exclude those lines from display. You can also just use "x" followed by a number to specify exactly how many lines you wish to exclude.
- I use this a lot when I'm working on a module in ISPF Edit and need to simultaneously look at two chunks of code that are not located near each other in the module.
- AUTOTYPE
- Set one of your function keys to AUTOTYPE (type "KEYS" in ISPF). This command will let you type a partial name into a Library field (project, group, type or member) or the Other Data Set Name field - then press your function key you set up and ISPF will fill in the value. Pressing the key again will retrieve the next value.
- Very useful if you are constantly working between many different libraries and can't always remember them all :-)
- System command extension
- While in SDSF, you can type "/" to bring up a pop-up in ISPF that will allow you to enter very long commands.
- Sometimes the command line is not long enough to type in your entire command and this allows for commands up to 126 (I believe that's the limit...) characters long. What I really like is that it remembers your previous commands so you don't have to retype it all again.
- TSO ISRDDN
- Type this command in ISPF to "view and manipulate allocated files, to view existing ENQs and ENQ contention, and to browse storage and loaded load modules." This diagnostic facility is very useful for investigating datasets. You can view and compress datasets, get detailed information and display a list of jobs and users using a dataset.
- I like this command because it gives me a good overall picture of what's going on in my sessions regarding datasets - very useful when doing testing.
- EX ALL;F 'string' ALL
- This is a nice condensed find command that I often use in ISPF EDIT to isolate the results of the find. The find command can be as complex as you like, and the results are displayed in an easy to read chunk, with all the lines that did not meet the find criteria omitted from the display.
There are many others, but this is a good starting list for those of you who are new to ISPF and want some commands to make your life easier.
So if you use ISPF often too, what are your favorite slick commands? I always want to learn more, so please share!
Til next time, Kristine