Primary commands

Primary commands affect the entire data set being edited. You enter primary commands by typing them on the command line (Command ===>), usually located on line 2, and pressing Enter. Any command entered on the edit command line is first intercepted by ISPF. If the command entered is an Edit Primary Command or an Edit Macro, PDF processes the command.

You can use primary commands to:

Control your editing environment
Find a specific line
Find and change a character string
Combine several members into one
Split a member into two or more members
Submit data to the job stream
Save the edited data or cancel without saving
Sort data
Delete lines
Access dialog element models
Run an edit macro

If you have a primary command that is too long for the input field in the command line the ISPF command ZEXPAND can be used to display a popup window with the input field expanded to a length of 255 characters. The long primary command can then be entered in this expanded input field. After you exit the popup window and return to the data display press Enter to have the editor process the command. This popup window is only for the input of edit primary commands. To input other commands (for example TSO commands) that are too long for the command field, use the CMDE command.

Note:

A long editor command entered in the popup window is truncated at the length of the edit panel command field when saved in the command retrieve stack.
The support for an expandable command field is enabled for the IBM-supplied edit panels ISREDDE2, ISREDDE3, ISREDDE4, ISREDDE5, and FLMEDDE. The LEFT and RIGHT commands cannot be used to scroll data in the command field.

You can prefix any primary command with an ampersand to keep the command displayed on the command line after the command has processed. This technique allows you to repeat similar commands without retyping the command. For example, if you type:

&CHANGE ALL ABCD 1234

the command is displayed after the change has been made, which allows you then to change the operands and issue another CHANGE command. You can recall previous commands with the ISPF RETRIEVE command.

See Managing data for some of the ways you can use primary commands to manipulate data and Edit primary commands for the primary command syntax.