Using the PL/I Outline view

When you open a file in the editor, an outline of the file opens in the Outline view. The outline view can be updated to contain preprocessor statements after running the Source > Preprocessor Commands action. You can expand or collapse program divisions, show or hide parts of a program, or filter parts of a program by name.

About this task

The divisions in a PL/I program are identified by icons in the Outline view:
Icon Outline element
PROCEDURE icon PROCEDURE or PROC
ON icon ON
Revert icon REVERT
Label icon LABEL
DO, SELECT, and BEGIN statement icon DO, SELECT, and BEGIN statements
Data item Data item

When you open a file, the Outline view provides toolbar items and a menu for filtering the parts of a program. From this view, you can show or hide different parts of the program according to their division, expand and collapse the outline, and show or hide parts of the program according to their name.

Procedure

  • To expand the nodes in the Outline view, select Expand Outline from the drop-down menu. To collapse the outline to the nodes, select Collapse Outline from the menu. When you place the cursor on a line in the editor, the outline expands or collapses the corresponding node.
  • To filter the program divisions in the Outline view, click one of the toolbar buttons at the top of the view. Click a button to activate the filter. Click it again to restore the outline view to its original state.
    Option Description
    Sort elements by name toolbar button Sorts sibling nodes in the outline in ascending order by name.
    Hide data items icon Hides data items.
    Hide on-units icon Hides on-units.
    Hide labels icon Hides labels.
    Hide includes icon Hides includes.
    Hide statement blocks icon Hides statement blocks not containing data items.
  • To hide parts of the program according to their name:
    1. Select Filters from the drop-down menu.
      The PL/I Element Filters window opens.
    2. Type a name pattern in the field.
      You can use the * and ? wildcard characters in the filter string. Separate multiple filter strings with commas.
    3. Click Ignore case to match strings in upper, lower, or mixed case.
    4. Click OK.
      The Outline view hides any program elements that match the filter strings entered.
    5. To show any of these filtered elements, select Filters again, delete the filter strings from the field, and click OK.