Personal list modes

The action taken when you select a data set from a list depends on how you have the Mode set. All personal lists can be set to either Retrieve or Execute mode from the RefMode pull-down on the action bar of the View Entry, Edit Entry, and most Utilities panels, as shown in Figure 1. List Retrieve displays in blue (the default) with an asterisk as the first digit of the selection number (if you are running in GUI mode, the choice is grayed), which indicates that RefMode is currently set to Retrieve.

Figure 1. RefMode Pull-Down Menu

   Menu  RefList  RefMode  Utilities  Workstation  Help
 ────────────── ┌─────────────────────┐ ───────────────────────────────────────
                │ 1  1. List Execute  │ ry Panel
                │    *. List Retrieve │
 ISPF Library:  └─────────────────────┘
    Project . . . USERID
    Group . . . . TEST     . . .          . . .          . . .
    Type  . . . . SOURCE
    Member  . . .                 (Blank or pattern for member selection list)

 Other Partitioned, Sequential or VSAM Data Set, or z/OS UNIX file:
    Data Set Name . . .
 ⋮

The RefMode pull-down offers you these choices:

List Execute: Sets personal data set lists and personal library lists to Execute mode; that is, when you select an entry from the list, the information is placed into the ISPF Library or Other Data Set Name field, and ISPF proceeds as if you also pressed the Enter key.
List Retrieve: Sets personal data set lists and personal library lists to Retrieve mode; that is, when you select an entry from the list, the information is placed into the ISPF Library or Other Data Set Name field, but the simulated pressing of the Enter key is not performed. This allows you to set other options before you press Enter.