User manual

Series 3700 System Switch/Multimeter Reference Manual Section 13: Instrument Control Library (ICL)
3700S-901-01 Rev. C / July 2008 13-185
format.data
Usage
To read data format:
fmt = format.data
To write data format:
format.data = fmt
fmt: Set to one of the following values:
1 or format.ASCII ASCII format.
2 or format.SREAL Single precision IEEE-754 binary format.
2 or format.REAL32 Single precision IEEE-754 binary format.
3 or format.REAL Double precision IEEE-754 binary format.
3 or format.REAL64 Double precision IEEE-754 binary format.
Remarks
This attribute selects the data format used to print data values with the
printnumber() (on page 13-222) and printbuffer() (on page 13-221) functions.
The precision of the ASCII format can be controlled with the format.asciiprecision
(on page 13-183) attribute. The byte order of SREAL, REAL, REAL32, and REAL64
can be selected with the format.byteorder (on page 13-183) attribute.
REAL32 and SREAL select the same single precision format. REAL and REAL64
select the same double precision format. They are alternative identifiers. Selecting
which to use is a matter of preference.
The IEEE-754 binary formats use 4 bytes each for single precision values and 8
bytes each for double precision values.
When data is written with any of the binary formats, the response message will start
with "#0" and end with a new line. When data is written with the ASCII format,
elements will be separated with a comma and space.
Also see
format.asciiprecision (on page 13-183)
format.byteorder (on page 13-183)
printbuffer() (on page 13-221)
printnumber() (on page 13-222)
Example
Selects the ASCII data format:
format.data = format.ASCII