Syntax


I[n] 



Operands


n

The number of blank lines to insert. If you do not type a number, or if the number you type is 1, only one line is inserted.


Description

The I line command inserts one or more lines in your file. The inserted lines are blank, unless you have defined a non-blank mask. See MASK - Set the Insert line model for more information about defining a mask. By default, the MASK line is defined as blank, and when that is the case, lines inserted with the I line command are blank.


Technically, for any given file type, there is always a MASK definition present. The only question is whether it is blank or not.


    1. Type I in the line command area of the line that the inserted line is to follow. If you want to insert more than one line, type a number greater than 1 after the I command. 


It is legal to ask for more temporary lines than the screen can display, but these will disappear when you attempt to scroll the screen.


    1. Press Enter.
    2. The line or lines are inserted.   


If you type any information (even the spacebar) on a temporary  line, the line becomes a permanent part of the data and is assigned a line number the next time you press Enter. However, if you do not type any information, the space for the new line is automatically deleted the next time you press Enter.  


If you do not type any information on a temporary line when a non-blank MASK is defined, the non-blank characters of the MASK are not considered to be "entered data". If you press Enter without typing any characters of your own, the temporary line containing these non-blank MASK characters is not retained.


If you type information on the last, or only, inserted line and the cursor is still in the data portion of that line, the editor automatically inserts another line when you press Enter.  That way you can continue entering new data without having to re-issue the I command each time.


Note: IBM ISPF inserts MASK lines when you first edit a new file. SPFLite does not implement that action, nor does it initially fill the screen with temporary blank lines of any kind for a new file. To get that effect, you must manually enter an I line command yourself. If you wanted to achieve the effect of completely filling an edit screen with temporary blank lines, you can issue a line command like I99 on the Top of Data line, or at the top-most line being displayed. SPFLite will fill-out the displayed screen with blank lines, as many as will fit, and any "extras" that don't fit are simply ignored.


See also the N command for inserting permanent blank lines. The N line command does not utilize the MASK line.

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