HP E1418A - Manual (Page 62)

Implied
Commands
Implied commands appear in square brackets ([ ]) in the command syntax. (Note
that the brackets are not part of the command and are not sent to the instrument.)
Suppose you send a second level command but do not send the preceding implied
command. In this case, the instrument assumes you intend to use the implied
command and it responds as if you had sent it. Examine this excerpt from the
STATus subsystem shown below:
STATus:
OPERation
[:EVENt]?
The third level command, EVENt , is implied. To read the value of the Event
Register, you can use either:
STATus:OPERation?
or
STATus:OPERation:EVENt?
Parameters Parameters are enclosed in greater than/less than symbols ( < > ) in the command
syntax. When more than one parameter is allowed, the parameters are separated by
a vertical line (
| ).
Parameter Types. The following table contains explanations and examples of
parameter types you might see later in this chapter. Parameters must always be
separated from the keywords by a space.
Parameter Type Explanations and Examples
Numeric Accepts all commonly used decimal representations of
numbers including optional signs, decimal points, and
scientific notation.
123, 123E2, -123, -1.23E2, .123, 1.23E-2, 1.23000E-01.
Special cases include MIN, MAX, and DEF.
Boolean Represents a single binary condition that is either
true or false.
ON, OFF, 1, 0.
Discrete Selects from a finite number of values. These parameters
use mnemonics to represent each valid setting.
An example is the SOURce n :FUNCtion:MODE < mode >
command where the < mode > parameter can be either
CURRent or VOLTage.
Optional Parameters. Parameters shown within square brackets ( [ ] ) are optional
parameters. (Note that the brackets are not part of the command and are not sent to
the instrument.) If you do not specify a value for an optional parameter, the
instrument chooses a default value.
Chapter 3 HP E1418A SCPI Command Reference 61
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