How to Find Data in a Policy Item

You can use the FIND/RFIND command for the following policy items:

  • AUTOMATION FLAGS of entry types APL, ADF, SDF, and MDF (on EXIT and DISABLE TIME panel)
  • MINOR RESOURCES of entry types APL and MVC
  • MESSAGES/USER DATA of entry types APL, APG, MTR, and MVC
  • STARTUP of entry types APL
  • SHUTDOWN of entry types APL
  • HEALTHSTATE of entry type MTR
  • OPCA DOMAINID of entry type ODM
  • E-T DATA of entry type UET

The FIND command is used to find and display the next occurrence of a character string in the data that is being edited. You can abbreviate it to F.

For every FIND command, you must specify the string of characters that is to be located. In most cases, you simply enter FIND, or its abbreviation F, followed by the character string. For example, to find the character string demo, enter the following: 
find demo

The cursor is placed at the beginning of the string. Automatic scrolling is performed, if necessary, to bring the string into view. You can use left or right scrolling (by default, the PF10 and PF11 keys) to bring other fields into view.

For the following two fields the length of the input area can be modified, so it can occur that the content is not displayed in full length. In this case only the data that is visible is searched through:
  • The Message ID column on the Message Processing panel for entry types APL, APG, MTR, and MVC
  • The Keyword column on the UET Keyword-Data Specification panel

You should therefore consider expanding the column width so that all data is visible before performing a search.

You can limit the columns that are searched through by the FIND command by specifying a column name or a non-ambiguous abbreviation for it. The string is found if it is completely contained within the designated column. For example, to find the character string demo in the Data column on the UET Keyword-Data Specification panel, enter: 
find demo data
To use the same string that was used in the previous FIND command, you can replace it with a * (asterisk). For example, to find the character string demo again in the Data column, enter: 
find * data
If you want to find data strings that contain spaces or special characters, you can enclose the string in quotation marks. For example, to find the expression A = B, enter: 
find 'a = b'
Normally the FIND command searches for the next occurrence of the specified character string, starting at the top of the displayed page or at the cursor position (if the cursor is within the data portion of the display). You can control the scope of the search by entering the optional parameter ALL. For example, to perform a search for all of the occurrences of the character string demo, starting at the beginning of the first line of data and continuing to the bottom, enter: 
find demo all
If the string is found one or more times, the cursor is placed at the beginning of the first occurrence and the string is highlighted. You can use the RESET command to remove the highlighting.

A message is displayed indicating the number of times that the string was found. If you press the RFIND PF key (the default is PF5 or PF17), the second occurrence is found, then the third, and so forth until the bottom of the data is reached.

If the string is not found within the data, a message is displayed indicating that the characters cannot be found.

The RFIND (repeat find) command can be used to repeat the last FIND command that was entered. Because this command is sensitive to the current position of the cursor, it is normally entered via a PF key. By pressing the RFIND PF key repeatedly, you can find successive occurrences of the specified character string. After the first occurrence of a character string has been found using the FIND command, the RFIND key will find the next occurrence. After the last occurrence of a character string has been found, you can use the RFIND key to continue the search, wrapping around from the bottom line to the top line of the data.

If you enter the optional ALL parameter or a column name as part of the FIND command, you can specify them in any order. Although normally not required, you can avoid ambiguity with the optional parameters by using quotation marks or apostrophes to enclose the character string that is to be found. For example, the following command is ambiguous: 
find all k
It could mean either scan for the string all in the Keyword column, or scan for all occurrences of the string k. In such cases the message Put string in quotes is displayed. You should reenter the command with the search string in quotation marks.

If the FIND command cannot be interpreted, the message Parameter not recognized is displayed. Reenter the command with appropriate parameters.

If you exit a panel, the search string is not retained, so you need to enter a new FIND command if you return to the panel.