When Concatenating Commands
Command Groups
A command group is a group of commands that have
common compound headers arranged in a hierarchy. A
command group may contain sub-groups.
Example Group of commands related to source
:SOURce:FUNCtion
:SOURce:RANGe
:SOURce:LEVel:FIX
:SOURce:LEVel:AUTO
:SOURce:PROTection:VOLTage
:SOURce:PROTection:CURRent
When Concatenating Commands of the Same
Group
The GS200 stores the hierarchical level of the
command that is currently being executed and
processes the next command on the assumption that
it belongs to the same level. Therefore, the common
header section can be omitted for commands that
belong to the same group.
Example
:SOURce:FUNCtion VOLTage;
RANGe 100E-3<PMT>
When Concatenating Commands of Different
Groups
If the subsequent command does not belong to the
same group, place a colon in front of its header.
Example
:SOURce:FUNCtion VOLTage;:SENSe:
TRIGger READy<PMT>
When Concatenating Simple Headers
If a simple header follows another command, place a
colon in front of the simple header.
Example
:SOURce:FUNCtion VOLTage;:INITiate<PMT>
When Concatenating Common Commands
Common commands that are defined in IEEE
488.2-1992 are independent of hierarchy. A colon is not
needed before a common command.
Example
:SOURce:FUNCtion VOLTage;*CLS<PMT>
When Separating Commands with <PMT>
If you separate two commands with a terminator,
two program messages will be sent. Therefore, the
common header must be specified for each command
even when commands belonging to the same
command group are being concatenated.
Example
:SOURce:FUNCtion VOLTage<PMT>:SOURce:
FUNCtio RANGe 100E-3<PMT>
Header Interpretation Rules
The GS200 interprets the header that it receives
according to the rules below.
• Mnemonics are not case sensitive.
Example
SOURce
can also be written as
source
or
Source
.
• The lower-case characters of mnemonics can be
omitted.
Example
SOURce
can also be written as
SOURc
or
SOUR
.
• The question mark at the end of a header indicates
that it is a query. You cannot omit the question mark.
Example
The shortest abbreviation for
OUTPut?
is
OUTP?
.
• If the
<x>
(value) at the end of a mnemonic is
omitted, it is interpreted as a 1.
Example
If
FILT
is specified for
FILTer<x>
,
it means
FILTer1
.
• Parts of commands and parameters enclosed in
square brackets (
[ ]
) can be omitted.
Example
OUTPut[:STATe] 1
can be written as
OUTPut 1
.
13.1 Program Format
13-4
IM GS210-01EN