Working with packed data in View

In View, if your PDS or PDSE data sets have been written using the ISPF PACK option, you can choose to unpack the data before viewing it, or work with the data in its packed format. This can be particularly useful when your data appears to be in ISPF PACK format, but is in fact not so.

To unpack files automatically on viewing:

1. Do one of the following:
   1. On the Primary Option Menu panel, select option 0 Settings.
   2. On the Set Processing Options panel, select option 6 EDIT.

   OR

   1. On the View Entry panel, select Options from the Action Bar.
   2. Select option 9 from the pull down menu.
2. Select the Recognize and interpret ISPF packed data option.

   When this option is selected, File Manager checks the data in the data set or member being viewed to determine if it has been written with the ISPF PACK option. If it had, File Manager then unpacks the data to allow it to be viewed in the normal fashion. If the unpacked data set is too large to be contained in memory, File Manager issues a message and then opens the data set in its packed format. If this option is deselected, File Manager does not check the data format and operates on packed data in its packed state.

Related topics

• PACK primary command
• Viewing and changing packed data
• Editor Options panel
• Copying data sets