Nice idea, but doesn't work for two reasons. The first is that LINE "retrieves the data from the DATA line" (emphasis mine), but messages lines are not data lines.
The second is that the syntax for retrieving data requires either LINE linenum or LINE label; you can't just say (varname) = LINE. What you're seeing in the manual: LINE Data from this line is used is referring to the options for the *data* part of the syntax, where you're assigning data to a line. It is one of the values acceptable for operand when using the Merge format. I've had other people ask me about how a macro can retrieve message lines before. I'm thinking an enhancement request (Idea) is in order, but I'm not sure what to ask for. The problem is that Edit works by using relative line numbers, but messages have no line numbers. So if they were able to be referenced, how? It is kind of like there needs to be syntax that references messages lines relative to a data line. For example, if there's 3 messages following the data line at relative line number 10, these would be 10.1, 10.2, 10.3. -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Bob Bridges Sent: Friday, April 14, 2023 12:19 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [EXTERNAL] ISPF usage question I've never had to deal with this so I've kept my figurative mouth shut so far. But if you're planning to give up at this point, I'll expose my ignorance: Couldn't you write a REXX that uses LOCATE to find the next message or note line, then LINE to pull the contents of that line and examine it? It seems to say here that specifying LINE without a line number pulls the current line. But as I say, I've never tested it. --- Bob Bridges, [email protected], cell 336 382-7313 /* I went water skiing and it turns out I scream the same way whether I'm about to be devoured by a Great White or a piece of seaweed touches my foot. -attributed to both Kevin James and Axel Rose */ -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Pommier, Rex Sent: Friday, April 14, 2023 12:28 Thanks, all, for your suggestions. It is as I feared/figured. ISPF edit doesn't have any mechanism to actually search for information in =NOTE= or ==MSG> lines without converting them to full data lines. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
