Technical data

Programming Fundamentals 2
Programmer’s Guide 13
Command Syntax
A command consists of mnemonics (keywords), parameters and
punctuation. Before you start to program your signal generator,
familiarize yourself with the standard notation of each of them.
Command
Mnemonics
(keywords)
Many commands have both a long and a short form: use either one. (a
combination of the two is not allowed). Consider the :FREQuency command
for example:
• Short form :FREQ
• Long form :FREQUENCY
SCPI is not case sensitive, so fREquEncy is just as valid as FREQUENCY, but
FREQ and FREQUENCY are the only valid forms of the FREQuency
command.
In this documentation, upper case letters indicate the short form of the
keyword. The lower case letters indicate the long form of the keyword.
Punctuation • A vertical bar "|" dictates a choice of one element from a list. For example:
<A>|<B> indicates that either A or B can be selected, but not both.
• Square brackets "[ ]" indicates that the enclosed items are optional.
• Angle brackets "< >" indicates a variable items to be entered to represent
user choices.
• A question mark "?" after a subsystem command indicates that the
command is a query. The returned information, <value> varies in format
according to the type of the field.
Separator • A colon ":" seperates keywords of different levels. The colon before the
root keyword is usually omitted.
• A space separates a keyword and a parameter, as well as a parameter and a
unit.