Agilent Technologies 34401A - Manual (Page 162)

Command Separators
A colon ( : ) is used to separate a command keyword from a lower-level
keyword. You must insert a blank space to separate a parameter from a
command keyword. If a command requires more than one parameter,
you must separate adjacent parameters using a comma as shown below:
"CONF:VOLT:DC 10, 0.003"
A semicolon ( ; ) is used to separate commands within the same
subsystem, and can also minimize typing. For example, sending the
following command string:
"TRIG:DELAY 1; COUNT 10"
... is the same as sending the following two commands:
"TRIG:DELAY 1"
"TRIG:COUNT 10"
Use a colon and a semicolon to link commands from different subsystems.
For example, in the following command string, an error is generated if
you do not use both the colon and semicolon:
"SAMP:COUN 10;:TRIG:SOUR EXT"
Using the MIN and MAX Parameters
You can substitute MINimum or MAXimum in place of a parameter for
many commands. For example, consider the following command:
VOLTage:DC:RANGe {< range >|MINimum|MAXimum}
Instead of selecting a specific voltage range, you can substitute MIN
to set the range to its minimum value or MAX to set the range to its
maximum value.
Chapter 4 Remote Interface Reference
An Introduction to the SCPI Language
156