Ispf Editor Commands Mainframe
Ispf Editor Tutorial

Mainframers are aware that the Interactive System Productivity Facility (ISPF) editor, introduced in the 1970s, is easy to learn and helps with basic editing. The editor also has many powerful functions that enable users to manipulate source code and edit and analyze data, noted Dan Dirkse, president of Iuvo Technologies, Inc., at SHARE Fort Worth during his SHARE Best Session 'ISPF Master. Looking for a line-oriented ISPF style editor because Windows character-mode text editors just don't do it for you? Been a loyal Tritus SPF or SPF/PC user and feel 'left behind' now that they're gone? Miss ISPF features like Exclude, Overlay, Bounds, Sort, Hex mode, etc.? Like to tweak and customize your edit environment?

The following table describes some of the most used ISPF commands that may come very handy when editing datasets or members the mainframe:

Edit Primary Commands
CHANGE string1 string2	Changes first occurrence of string1 with string2. CHANGE can also be used as C
CHANGE ALL string1 string2	Changes all occurrences of string1 with string2
CHANGES LAST string1 string2	Changes string1 with string2, starting at the bottom of the data and searching backward to find the last occurrence of `string1`
CHANGE PREV string1 string2	Changes string1 with string2, starting at the current cursor location and searching backward to find the previous occurrence of `string1`
CHANGE NEXT string1 string2	Changes string1 with string2, starting at the first position after the current cursor location and searching ahead to find the next occurrence of `string1`
CHANGE PREFIX string1 string2	Changes string1 with string2, locating `string1` at the beginning of a word
CHANGE SUFFIX string1 string2	Changes string1 with string2, locating `string1` at the end of a word
CHANGE WORD string1 string2	Changes string1 with string2 providing string1 is a word
CHANGE X string1 string2	Changes string1 with string2 scanning only the lines that are excluded from the display
CHANGE NX string1 string2	Changes string1 with string2 scanning only the lines that are not excluded from the display
C string1 string2 col1 col2	Changes string1 with string2 between column 1 and column 2
COPY data	Copies a sequential data set, a member of a partitioned data set, or a z/OS UNIX file into the data being edited
COPY data AFTER label	Copies data after the line with the specified label
COPY data BEFORE label	Copies data before the line with the specified label
CREATE data	Creates a member of a partitioned data set, a sequential data set, or z/OS UNIX file from the data you are editing. Use CREATE or CRE.
CREATE data label1 label2	Creates a member, dataset or UNIX file. Label1 and label2 identify the start and end of the group of lines which are added to the new member.
CREATE data .zf .zl	Creates a member, dataset or UNIX file of the entire member being edited. .ZF sets a label for the first line and .ZF for the last line.
DEL ALL	Deletes all the lines from the data you are editing
DEL X	Deletes all the lines that are excluded
DEL NX	Deletes all the lines that are not excluded
DEL label1 label2	Deletes the group of lines defined from label1 up to label2
EDIT member	Edits another sequential data set, partitioned data set member, or z/OS UNIX file during your current edit session
EXCLUDE ALL	Hides from view all the lines of the member being edited and replaces them with a dashed line. Use EXCLUDE or X
EXCLUDE string	Hides from view the first line that contain a search string
EXCLUDE string ALL	Hides from view all the lines that contain the search string
EXCLUDE string PREV	Hides from view the line that contains the search string before the cursor
EXCLUDE string NEXT	Hides from view the line that contains the search string after the cursor
EXCLUDE string PREFIX	Hides from view the line that contains the search string as a prefix from a word
EXCLUDE string SUFFIX	Hides from view the line that contains the search string as a suffix from a word
EXCLUDE string WORD	Hides from view the line that contains the search string as an all word
EXCLUDE string col1 col2	Hides from view the line that contains the search string between col1 and col2
FIND string	Finds the specified string (ex: F REVIEW). F can be used instead of FIND.
FIND string NEXT	Finds the next occurrence of the string in regards to where the cursor is positioned
*FIND string* PREV**	Finds the previous occurrence of the string in regards to where the cursor is positioned
*FIND string* FIRST**	Finds the first occurrence of the string
FIND string LAST	Finds the last occurrence of the string
FIND string ALL	Finds all the occurrences of the string
*FIND string* SUFFIX**	Finds the string as a suffix of a word
*FIND string* PREFIX**	Finds the string as a prefix of a word
*FIND string* WORD**	Finds the string as a all word
*FIND string* col1 col2**	Finds the string between column 1 and column 2 (ex: F HELLO 20 40)

Ispf Editor