Command Separators And Terminators - Keysight N6705C Operating And Service Manual

will always be correct because the commands are not executed until the message terminator is
received. Because the range and setting information is received as a set, no range/setting conflict
occurs.

Command Separators and Terminators

Separators
Colons ( : ) separate keyword levels. Blank spaces must be used to separate command parameters
from their corresponding keyword. Note the space between STATe and the *RST parameter. If a
command requires more than one parameter, use a comma to separate adjacent parameters. In the
following example, the optional startindex and points parameters must be separated with a comma.
FETCh:CURRent? [<start_index>, <points>,] (@1)
Semicolons ( ; ) separate commands within the same subsystem. This lets you send several
subsystem commands within the same message string. For example, sending the following command
string:
OUTPut:STATe ON,(@1);PON:STATe RST
is the same as sending the following commands:
OUTPut ON,(@1)
OUTPut:PON:STATe RST
Note that the semicolon follows the implied path of the hierarchical tree structure. In the above
example, the optional :STATe keyword must follow the OUTput keyword to place the command parser
at the second level in the hierarchy. This allows the use of the PON keyword after the semicolon, since
PON is a second-level keyword.
You can also combine commands of different subsystems within the same message string. In this
case, you must use a colon to return the command parser to the root level in order to access another
subsystem. For example, you could clear the output protection and check the status of the Operation
Condition register in one message by using a root specifier as follows:
OUTPut:PROTection:CLEar (@1);:STATus:OPERation:CONDition? (@1)
Note the use of the colon after the semicolon in order to return the command parser to the root.
Terminators
A command string sent to the instrument must terminate with a new line (<NL>) character. The IEEE-
488 EOI (End-Or-Identify) message is interpreted as a <NL> character and can be used to terminate a
command string in place of an <NL>. A carriage return followed by a new line (<CR><NL>) is also
accepted. Command string termination will always reset the current SCPI command path to the root
level.
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7 SCPI Programming Reference
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