General values

When an IPCS subcommand accepts a literal value that can describe a string and a number, that value can be expressed as follows:

Preceded by a letter indicating the type of literal and an apostrophe. The letter can be entered in uppercase or lowercase.
Followed by an apostrophe.

When the primary commands in the IPCS dialog accept a literal value that can describe a string and a number, that value can be expressed in the same manner as described for the IPCS subcommands and as follows:

Preceded or succeeded by a letter indicating the type of literal value. The letter can be entered in uppercase or lowercase.
The literal value can be delimited by either quotation marks or by apostrophes. If the delimiter character is used as part of the value, then each delimiter that is represented in the value must be doubled.
For example, if you want to find the EBCDIC character string dump's, enter:
```
FIND C'dump''s'    or      FIND C"dump's"
```

IPCS accepts 64-bit addresses and signed binary values. The explicit length notation is indicated by an expression within parentheses beginning with the letter “..L” in upper or lower case and followed by a length expressed in decimal. Standard TSO/E separator characters may be used between parts of the expression. The total length of the expression may not exceed 256 characters. See type codes A, F, and H for examples.

IPCS supports the following types of values:

A‘[(Ln)]xxxxxxxx_xxxxxxxx’

This notation describes a fullword pointer. The value, xxxxxxxx_xxxxxxxx, is a 1- to 16-digit hexadecimal expression. IPCS provides leading zeros if you enter fewer than 16 digits.

The length may be explicitly specified as 1-8 bytes or will default to 4 bytes.

Example:

A‘(L8) F4’
A‘(L8) 00000000_000000F4’

C‘c...’

This notation describes an EBCDIC character string containing one to 256 characters. The value, c..., is subjected to editing as follows:

Data entered manually from a terminal may be translated by the TSO/E Terminal I/O Controller.
IPCS translates each pair of adjacent apostrophes into a single apostrophe.
The FIND primary command accepts either ‘ABC’C or C‘ABC’ as the same search value.

Note: Lowercase letters are not translated to uppercase when the search argument is formed.

Example:

find C'aBc'

Result: IPCS finds the first occurrence of aBc.

F‘[(Ln)][+]nnnnnnnnnn’

F‘[(Ln)]-nnnnnnnnnn’

This notation describes a signed binary fullword. The value, [+|-]nnnnnnnnnn, is a 1- to 10-decimal digit number preceded by an optional plus (the default) or minus sign. IPCS provides leading zeros if you enter fewer than ten digits.

Example:

F‘(L8) 124’

H‘[(Ln)][+]nnnnn’

H‘[(Ln)]-nnnnn’

This notation describes a signed binary halfword. The value, [+|-]nnnnn, is a 1- to 5-decimal digit number, preceded by an optional plus (the default) or minus sign. IPCS provides leading zeros if you enter fewer than 5 digits.

Example:

H‘(L8) 75’

P‘p...’

This notation describes a picture string containing one to 256 characters. With picture strings you can enter the type of string to be found instead of the exact characters to be found. Each character p can be any of the following:

Blank
Alphabetic character
Decimal digit

or it can be a symbol used to represent a class of characters, as follows:

Symbol: Description of Class
=: Any character
@: Alphabetic characters
#: Numeric characters
$: Special characters
¬: Non-blank characters
.: Invalid characters
-: Non-numeric characters
<: Lowercase alphabetics
>: Uppercase alphabetics

Use of picture strings results in either an equal or an unequal condition.

Note: Picture strings can be used only in a search argument or in a comparison. They cannot be used to specify:

A PAD value on a COMPARE subcommand
A MASK value on a COMPARE, EVALUATE, or FIND subcommand or on a FIND primary command
A symbolic literal on a LITERAL subcommand

Example 1:

find p'aBc'

Result: IPCS finds the first occurrence of string aBc.

Example 2:

FIND P'¬>'

Result: IPCS finds the first occurrence of a string consisting of a non-blank character followed by an uppercase letter.

Q‘Q...’

This notation describes an ASCII character string containing one to 256 characters. The value, Q..., is subjected to editing as follows:

Data entered manually from a terminal may be translated by the TSO/E Terminal I/O Controller.
IPCS translates each pair of adjacent apostrophes into a single apostrophe.
The FIND primary command accepts either ‘ABC’Q or Q‘ABC’ as the same search value.
The characters entered are interpreted as ISO-8 ASCII characters and are limited to those characters for which corresponding EBCDIC graphics are supported.

Note: Lowercase letters are not translated to uppercase when the search argument is formed.

Example:

find Q'aBc'

Result: IPCS finds the first occurrence of aBc.

quoted-string

When the FIND primary command is used from the storage panel of IPCS browse, the character translation currently being employed determines how a quoted string is interpreted:

If characters are being shown in EBCDIC, the quoted string is interpreted as a text string T‘t...’.
If characters are being shown in ASCII, the quoted string is interpreted as an ASCII text string S‘...’.

S‘S...’

This notation describes ASCII text strings containing one to 256 characters. ASCII text strings are phrases without regard to case. Either uppercase or lowercase is processed. Use of ASCII text strings results in either an equal or unequal condition.

Note: ASCII text strings may only be used in a search argument or a comparison. They CANNOT be used to specify:

A pad value on a COMPARE subcommand.
A MASK value on a COMPARE, EVALUATE, or FIND subcommand or an a FIND primary command.
A symbolic literal on a LITERAL subcommand.

Example:

find s'ABC'

Result: IPCS finds the first occurrence of any of the following possibilities:

T‘t...’

This notation describes text strings containing one to 256 characters. Text strings are phrases without regard to case. Either uppercase or lowercase is processed. Use of text strings results in either an equal or an unequal condition.

Note: Text strings can be used only in a search argument or in a comparison. They cannot be used to specify:

A PAD value on a COMPARE subcommand
A MASK value on a COMPARE, EVALUATE, or FIND subcommand or on a FIND primary command
A symbolic literal on a LITERAL subcommand

Example:

find t'ABC'

Result: IPCS finds the first occurrence of any one of the following possibilities:

word

When the FIND primary command is used from the storage panel of IPCS browse, the character translation currently being employed determines how a word is interpreted:

If characters are being shown in EBCDIC, the quoted string is interpreted as a text string T‘t...’.
If characters are being shown in ASCII, the quoted string is interpreted as an ASCII text string S‘...’.

You determine whether characters are shown in EBCDIC or ASCII by using the EBCDIC and ASCII primary commands.

X‘xx...’

This notation describes a hexadecimal string containing one to 256 characters. The value, xx..., must contain two hexadecimal digits for each byte described. For legibility, you can place one or more TSO/E separator characters between groups of hexadecimal digits, such as:

Blanks (X‘40’)
Commas (X‘6B’)
Tabs (X‘05’)

Each group divided in this manner must describe one or more complete bytes.

*

This notation (the asterisk), which is accepted only by the FIND primary command in the IPCS dialog, specifies the repetition of the same search value that was used on the preceding FIND primary command.