Keysight Technologies N778 C Series Programming Manual page 14

1 Introduction to Programming
NOTE
14
Data Types
With the commands you give parameters to the instrument and receive
response values from the instrument. Unless explicitly specified these data
are given in ASCII format. The following types of data are used:
• Boolean data may only have the values 0 or 1.
• Integer range is given for each individual command.
• Float variables may be given in decimal or exponential writing (0.123 or
123E-3).
All Float values conform to the 32 bit IEEE Standard, that is, all Float
values are returned as 32-bit real values.
• A string is contained between double quotes (
' '
( ... ). When the instrument returns a string, it is always included in " ".
• When a register value is given or returned (for example *ESE), the
decimal values for the single bits are added. For example, a value of
nine means that bit 0 and bit 3 are set.
• Larger blocks of data are given as Binary Blocks, preceded by
"#<H><Len><Block>", <H> represents the number of digits, <Len>
represents the number of bytes, and <Block> is the data block. For
example, for a Binary Block with 1 digit and 6 bytes this is: #16TRACES.
The block represents an array of numbers. Each number has the byte
ordering least significant byte first, also called LSBfirst, little-endian or
Intel byte ordering.
Note that within your program, calculations with wavelengths may require
double-precision 64-bit floats to provide the desired resolution.
Keysight N778xC Series Polarization Instruments Programming Guide
" "
... ) or single quotes