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Find/Replace


In File-AID Data Editor Edit mode, the Find/Replace dialog box allows you to search for and replace data.

Find_Replace.png

If you are in File-AID Data Editor Browse mode, the Find dialog box appears instead of Find/Replace. All of the fields and buttons on both dialog boxes are the same although the replace options are disabled on the Browse mode Find dialog box.

To access Find/Replace or Find

Right-click a row in your display page and select Find, click Ctrl-F, or use the Find iconimage2021-8-18_13-11-51.png on the toolbar. The Find or Find/Replace dialog box appears depending on whether you are in Browse or Edit mode. Replace is not available in Browse mode.

Fields

The following table provides information about each field of the Find/Replace window:

Field

Description

  • Char
  • Numeric
  • Field

The Find/Replace dialog box has three tabs:

  • Char: To perform data search/replace. The Char tab is initially shown.
  • Numeric: To perform data search/replace on numeric items as defined to DB2 or via a record layout. The Numeric tab is disabled in Unformatted mode.
  • Field: To scroll the display to a specific layout field or column. The Field tab is disabled in Unformatted mode. Click the Field tab. This option allows you to search for a specific field and to scroll the display to show that field.

    Important

    The Field tab is not supported with MVS XREF or IMS data or when record layouts are not provided for MVS and IMS.

    Specify a partial or full field name or use the pull-down to select from a list of columns/fields in the current table/layout.

On the Char or Numeric tab, type the information you want to search for in the Find field, or use the pull-down arrow to select an item from the list of previously searched for items. Optionally (Char only), you may enter pairs of hex digits (0-9, A-F) in the Find (or Replace with) field and click the Hex checkbox to indicate a hex search (or replace).

Direction

Specify the direction of the search: Forward, Backward, First, or Last. When you perform search in the forward or backward direction, search results display records till the last occurrence of a dataset in both directions.

Options

  • Optionally, specify a Find Operator. Find operators vary depending on whether you are on the Char tab or the Numeric tab. For Char the default is Contains, but you may also select Not Contains, Not Valid, or Valid. For Numeric the default is equal, but you may also choose greater than, less than, greater or equal, less or equal, valid, or invalid.
  • Optionally (Char only), specify the option: Case sensitive. This forces exact case matching between the Value and the data.
  • Optionally (Char only), specify the option: Whole word. This forces the Value to be found exactly in a data field delimited by blanks. For example with Whole word selected, a Find of "AND" will not match Values of SAND or ANDY, but will match a Value of " AND " (delimited by blanks) and a Value of "AND " (starts with the word and ends with a blank).
  • Optionally, check the Wrap search checkbox. Activating this checkbox will cause the search to continue past the end of the page and start over at the beginning of the page when processing Forward, or to continue past the start of the page and to continue to search from the end of the page when processing Backward.

Row scope

Specify the rows for your search: All (with or without including Hidden rows based on the checkbox status) or Selected

Important

When Hidden rows are included in the row scope, any Hidden row containing a match for the Find value will be automatically unhidden. The Flip context option can be used to hide all displayed rows and unhide all hidden rows. (For more information, see Flip in File-AID-Data-Editor-Icons.)

Column/Field

  • Specify the columns for your search: All or Selected.
  • If you chose Selected, click Select.... The Select Columns dialog box appears. Choose the desired columns and click OK. For more information, see Search Column Selection

Important

With XREF or IMS data, selecting columns provides a method of restricting the search to a specific segment type (IMS) or record type or record segment (XREF).

  • When searching in Unformatted mode for MVS and IMS data, there is no Column Scope. Instead, the Location scope becomes active to allow you to restrict your search to only certain record/segment locations based on a start and end location you specify.

Find

  • Finds the first instance of your input Value. The value is highlighted. If necessary, the display scrolls to reveal your search item. If Formatted Table Mode and Formatted Row Mode are both visible in the data display window, both displays are scrolled to make sure the value is visible. Click Find again to find the next occurrence of the value. 

    Important

    In Formatted mode, the Value you specify must be contained within one cell (DB2 column or layout field) or no match will be detected. For example, a value of "Firstname M Lastname" may exist in the data record or segment and be visible as one string in Unformatted mode, but will not be found in Formatted mode since Firstname is in the FIRST-NAME field and Lastname is in the LAST-NAME field. If a layout has a redefines where a WHOLE-NAME field contains the value, then a match will occur.

  • Click the Find button to locate the field and automatically scroll the display to bring it into view. If Formatted Table Mode and Formatted Row Mode are both visible in the data display window, both displays are scrolled to make sure the field is visible.
  • When you search for data, search results display all occurrences from a dataset. To view all search results, click the Find button. Page navigation works automatically.

Find All 

Finds all instances in the data set of your input Value and highlights the found values throughout the page. If necessary, the display scrolls to the first match in the direction of your search.

When you search for data in a data set by clicking Find All, the following details are displayed:

  • Total number of occurrences
  • The number of occurrences found on the current page

FR_List all occurrences.png

Replace

  • Finds the first instance in the data set of your input Value and replaces with the designated Replace with data.
  • In Unformatted mode, if the length of the Replace with data is larger than the length of the Find data, the record contents will be shifted to the right following the Find field. If the record is fixed, truncation is not permitted and the replace may fail. For variable length records, the record size is increased. If the length of the Replace with field is smaller than the length of the Find field, record contents are shifted and blanks added to end of the record for fixed length records. For variable length records, the record length is reduced. 

    Warning

    Use care when replacing data with data of a different length in Unformatted mode, because this is likely to shift the data in the record and make the fields no longer align with the layout that defines them. In Formatted mode, replacement of data with a larger value may fail if the cell cannot contain the additional characters. As a reminder, a Find/Replace Caution dialog will appear before continuing. The dialog will allow you to choose to proceed or to cancel the replacement. The Find/Replace Caution dialog provides a Do not show this message again option. If you choose to suppress the warning and later want to reactivate it, you may do so via the Preferences (Window > Preferences > BMC > File-AID Data Editor (General tab).

  • When you find and replace records, the replaced records are indicated with the following icon:
    Icon_for_replaced_records.png
  • You can find data in a dataset and replace all its occurrences. To view replaced occurrences, click the Find button. 
    Replace all occurrances.png
  • You can search and replace data in the forward or backward direction. Similarly, you can find and replace the first and last occurrences of data.
    Fwd_Bk_F_L.png

Replace All 

Finds all instances in the data set of your input Value and replaces with the designated Replace with data.

Undo Last Replace

Allows you to undo the last replace operation. 

  • If you replace multiple instances by using Replace and click Undo Last Replace, only the last replaced instance is undone.
  • If you replace multiple instances by using Replace All and click Undo Last Replace, all instances that were replaced the last time are undone. For example, if you perform the Replace All operation for three times to replace multiple instances and click Undo Last Replace, only the instances that were replaced the third time are undone. 

Always clear find results upon close

Select this check box to clear the search results.

Clear

Clears all of the markers showing rows that found the Value.

Your search will execute immediately when you make one of the choices above. A status message indicating the results of your search will appear near the top of the Find dialog box. Find and Find/Replace processing is limited to a data set only.

Close

Click to to exit the Find or Find/Replace dialog box.

Search Column Selection

The Search Column Selection dialog box allows you to specify which columns to search when using Find/Replace.

To access the Search Column Selection Dialog Box:

  1. From the Find/Replace dialog box, choose Selected in the Column area and then click Select.... The Search Column Selection dialog box appears.
  2. To exclude columns from your search, move columns from the Searchable Columns area to the Excluded Columns area. 

    Important

    • When working with IMS data, you may optionally select a specific segment and—if the segment has multiple layouts—a specific layout. If you choose a segment or layout different from the currently displayed segment, the list of columns refreshes instantly. You may then choose to exclude columns to narrow your search. Your search will then be limited to only the selected segment type and layout and all selected (non-excluded) fields within that layout.
    • When working with MVS data using an XREF, you may optionally select a specific layout. If you choose a layout different from the currently displayed layout, the list of columns refreshes instantly. You may then choose to exclude columns to narrow your search. Your search will now be limited to only the selected layout and all selected (non-excluded) fields within that layout. This is also true for segmented records, and if the layout you choose is a segment (not a base), the search will be limited to records containing that segment type and to fields within that segment type that you have selected.
  3. Click OK. You will return to the Find/Replace dialog box where you can execute your search. For more information, see Find/Replace.

Column Chooser

The Column Chooser dialog box allows you to specify which columns to view while you are in Formatted Table and Formatted Row Modes. Column Chooser can modify the data display to hide or show selected columns or layout fields and can reorder the display of columns or fields.

To Access the Column Chooser Dialog Box

  1. Right-click on a column heading in Formatted Table Mode and select Column Chooser. The Column Chooser dialog box appears.

    Important

    • When working with IMS data or MVS data using an XREF, there is no Formatted Table Mode—only Formatted Row Mode, and thus no access to the Column Chooser for controlling the appearance and arrangement of layout fields.
    • Right-click on a column heading in Formatted Row Mode provides access to a special Column Chooser dialog where you can control the arrangement and appearance of the Metadata fields (Location, Data Type, Length, Picture, Value, etc.) making up the columns of the Formatted Row Mode display.
  2. Initially all columns or layout fields that you selected using Selection Criteria when you defined your Data access Request will appear in the Selected Columns list. To remove columns from view, move the desired columns to the Available Columns list. This will temporarily remove them from the display without having to rerun your selection criteria. To bring these columns back into view, move them back from the Available Columns list to the Selected Columns list.
  3. To reorder a column, select a column and click the Up or Down arrows until the selected column is in the desired position.
  4. Click Done. You will return to the Edit or Browse view.

    Important

    In addition to the above procedure, you can also hide columns by selecting a column, right-click the column heading, and selecting Hide Column from the context menu. The keyboard shortcut to hide columns is Ctrl+J. The keyboard shortcut to show all columns is Ctrl+Shift+J.

  5. You can move a column's order by dragging it right or left to a new position. 

    Important

    To select a single column, click and hold the cursor in the column heading and slightly drag the mouse down (still in the heading). To select multiple columns, hold down the Ctrl key and click in the lower left corner of each heading cell for the columns you want to select.

Sorting Rows

Using File-AID Data Editor, you can sort the rows of the Formatted Table Mode display in ascending or descending order.

Select the column you want to sort by clicking the column heading. Your rows will be sorted in ascending order. If you click the column heading again, the rows will be resorted in descending order. If you click the heading yet again, it will return the sort to the original order that they appear in the selected rows for this page. Sorting will wrap around to these three sorting options.
To sort your rows on multiple columns at the same time, first click on the column heading to sort your primary column, then hold the Alt key while clicking each additional secondary, tertiary, etc. column you want to sort. If you Alt-click a column heading multiple times it will toggle thru the ascending, descending, default sort orders.

Filtering Rows

A special row under the column heading, labeled “Filters” can be used to filter the display to show only rows with data matching the filter you enter for that column.
Wild cards are not allowed or needed. The filter always starts matching at the first character of data in the column. After typing one or more characters in the filter area, press Enter to execute the filter and to show only rows that contain your filter. A wild card is assumed before the first character and after the last character you type in the filter.

For example, a filter of “ad” will find all rows that contain “ad” preceded or followed by any other number of characters or numbers.
Filters are case-insensitive.

After your filter is processed, a clear filter icon is shown next to your filter. Clicking on the clear filter icon will erase your filter characters and redisplay all rows that were hidden by that filter.
To clear all filters, right-click on a column heading and select Clear All Filters from the context menu.

You can filter multiple columns.

Insert Multiple Rows

You can insert one or multiple rows into your data.

Important

You cannot insert Multiple Rows when working with IMS data.

To Access the Insert Multiple Rows Dialog Box:

  1. Right-click in the left-most column and select Insert Multiple Rows or click the Insert Multiple Rows icon image2021-8-18_13-12-47.pngon the icon bar. The Insert Multiple rows dialog box appears.
  2. Specify the number of rows you want to add.
  3. Click OK. You now have rows with initialized values that you can fill in. 

    Important

    For DB2 tables with unique primary keys and MVS KSDS data sets, ensure that you provide valid unique values for the key fields of each newly inserted row or you may encounter an error during save processing.

Repeat Row(s) and Repeat Row(s) Multiple Times

You can repeat one or more rows once or multiple times.

Important

  • You cannot use Repeat Row(s) Multiple Times when working with IMS data. Also, you may only repeat a single IMS segment; you cannot repeat a segment and all its children. (Repeat All is currently not supported.)
  • For DB2 tables with unique primary keys and MVS KSDS data sets, ensure that you provide valid unique values for the key fields of each newly inserted row or you may encounter an error during save processing.
    To repeat row(s).

To repeat row(s)

  1. Select the desired row(s) to be repeated.
  2. Right-click in the left-most column and select Repeat Row(s). The selected row(s) are repeated.

To repeat row(s) multiple times

  1. Select the desired row(s) to be repeated.
  2. Right-click in the left-most column and select Repeat Row(s) Multiple Times. The Repeat Row(s) Multiple Times dialog box appears.
  3. Specify the number of times you want to repeat the row(s).
  4. Click OK. Your selected row(s) have now been repeated the requested number of times.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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