16-4
IM 765501-01E
When Concatenating Commands
Command Group
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 sampling
SAMPLE?
SAMPLE:ARMING
SAMPLE:ARMING:DELAY:TIME
SAMPLE:ARMING:SLOPE
SAMPLE:ARMING:SOURCE
SAMPLE:GATE?
SAMPLE:GATE:TIME
SAMPLE:INHIBIT?
SAMPLE:INHIBIT:POLARITY
SAMPLE:INHIBIT:STATE
When Concatenating Commands of the Same
Group
The instrument stores the hierarchical level of the
command that is currently being executed, and
performs analysis on the assumption that the next
command sent will also belong to the same level.
Therefore, common header sections can be omitted for
commands belonging to the same group.
Example:
INPUT:DATA:TRIG:MODE MAN;
LEVEL 1.000V<PMT>
When Concatenating Commands of Different
Groups
If the following command does not belong to the same
group, a colon (
:
) is placed in front of the header.
Example:
MEASURE:FUNCTION DTOC;:DISPLAY:
SCALE R10<PMT>
When Concatenating Simple Headers
If a simple header follows another command, a colon
(
:
) is placed in front of the simple header.
Example:
MEASURE:FUNCTION DTOC;:START<PMT>
When Concatenating Common Commands
Common commands that are defined in the IEEE
488.2-1992 are independent of hierarchy. Colons (
:
)
are not needed before a common command.
Example:
MEASURE:FUNCTION DTOC;*CLS<PMT>
16.1 Program Format
When Separating Commands with <PMT>
If a terminator is used to separate two commands,
each command is a separate message. Therefore, the
common header must be specified for each command
even when commands belonging to the same
command group are being concatenated.
Example:
MEASURE:FUNCTION DTOC<PMT>MEASURE:
SPEED 1.0<PMT>
Header Interpretation Rules
The instrument interprets the header that is received
according to the rules below.
• Mnemonics are not case sensitive.
Example:
MEASure
can be also written as
measure
or
Measure
.
• The lower-case section of the mnemonic can be
omitted.
Example:
MEASure
can be also written as
measure
or
meas
.
• The question mark (
?
) at the end of a header
indicates that it is a query. The question mark (
?
)
cannot be omitted.
Example:
The shortest abbreviation for “
MEASure?
” is
“
MEAS?
.”
• If the
<x>
(value) at the end of a mnemonic is
omitted, it is interpreted as a 1.
Example:
If “
FILTer<x>
” is written as “
FILT
,” it means
“
FILTer1
.”
• The section enclosed by braces ([ ]) can be omitted.
Example:
INPut:PLL[:MODE] 1
can be written as
INPut:PLL 1
However, the last section enclosed by braces ([ ])
cannot be omitted in an upper-level query.
