The ISPF editor

z/OS® users typically use the ISPF editor to create or modify data set members.

To access the editor, select 2 from the ISPF Primary Option Menu and, on the Edit Entry panel, enter the name of the data set that you want to create or modify.

In edit mode, each line of text in the data set is known as a record. You can perform the following tasks:

To edit the contents of a data set, move the cursor to the area of the record to be changed and type over the existing text.
To find and change text, you can enter commands on the editor command line.
To insert, copy, delete, or move text, place these commands directly on the line numbers where the action should occur.

To commit your changes, use PF3 or save. To exit the data set without saving your changes, enter Cancel on the edit command line.

Figure 1 shows the contents of data set ZUSER.PROGRAM.CNTL(SORTCNTL) opened in edit mode.

Figure 1. Edit a data set

File   Edit   Edit_Settings   Menu   Utilities   Compilers   Test   Help 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

EDIT  ZUSER.PROGRAM.CNTL(SORTCNTL) - 01.00  Columns 00001 00072

Command ===>                      Scroll ===> CSR

**************************** Top of Data *****************************

000010 SORT FIELDS=(1,3,CH,A)

*************************** Bottom of Data ***************************

Take a look at the line numbers, the text area, and the editor command line. Primary command line, line commands placed on the line numbers, and text overtype are three different ways in which you can modify the contents of the data set. Line numbers increment by 10 with the TSO editor so that the programmer can insert nine additional lines between each current line without having to renumber the program.

PF1 in edit mode displays the entire editor tutorial (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Edit Help panel and tutorial

TUTORIAL -------------------------- EDIT ----------------------------- TUTORIAL
OPTION  ===>

                     -----------------------------------
                     |              EDIT               |
                     -----------------------------------

  Edit allows you to create or change source data.

The following topics are presented in sequence, or may be selected by number:
  0 - General introduction              8 - Display modes(CAPS/HEX/NULLS)
  1 - Types of data sets                9 - Tabbing (hardware/software/logical)
  2 - Edit entry panel                 10 - Automatic recovery
  3 - SCLM edit entry panel            11 - Edit profiles
  4 - Member selection list            12 - Edit line commands
  5 - Display screen format            13 - Edit primary commands
  6 - Scrolling data                   14 - Labels and line ranges
  7 - Sequence numbering               15 - Ending an edit session

The following topics will be presented only if selected by number:
 16 - Edit models
 17 - Miscellaneous notes about edit


F1=Help      F2=Split     F3=Exit      F4=Resize    F5=Exhelp   F6=Keyshelp
F7=PrvTopic  F8=NxtTopic  F9=Swap     F10=PrvPage  F11=NxtPage F12=Cancel

A subset of the line commands includes:

i: Insert a line
Enter: Press Enter without entering anything to escape insert mode
i5: Obtain five input lines
d: Delete a line
d5: Delete five lines
dd/dd: Delete a block of lines
r: Repeat a line
rr/rr: Repeat a block of lines
c: With a or b: Copy a line after or before
c5: With a or b: Copy five lines after or before
cc/cc: With a or b: Copy a block of lines after or before
m: Move lines. As with copy commands, m5, mm/mm and use with a or b are also valid commands.
x: Exclude a line