HP 53131A, 132A manual Command and Query Parameter Types

Chapter 3 Programming Your Universal Counter for Remote Operation

Elements of SCPI Commands

	Parameter Types
	Table 3-1 contains explanations and examples of parameter types. Parameter
	types may be numeric value, Boolean , literal, NRf, string, non-decimal numeric ,
	or arbitrary block.
	Table 3-1. Command and Query Parameter Types
TYPE	EXPLANATIONS AND EXAMPLES
<numeric value>	Accepts all commonly used decimal representation 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 MINimum and MAXimum as follows:
	MINimum selects minimum value	available.
	MAXimum selects maximum value	available.
	Queries using MINimum or MAXimum return the associated numeric value.
<Boolean>	Represents a single binary condition that is either true or false:
	1 or ON, 0 or OFF (Query response returns only 1 or 0.)
	An <NRf> is rounded to an integer. A non-zero value is interpreted as 1.
<literal>	Selects from a finite number of choices. These parameters use mnemonics to represent each valid
	setting. An example is the INPut:COUPling AC DC command parameters (AC DC).
<NRf>	Flexible numeric representation. Only positive integers are used for NRf parameters in the Counter.
<string>	A string parameter is delimited by either single quotes or double quotes. Within the quotes, any
	characters in the ASCII 7-bit code may be specified.
	The following HP BASIC program statement sends a command containing a <string> parameter:
<non-decimal	OUTPUT 703;"FUNC ‘FREQ’"
numeric>	Format for specifying hexadecimal (#H1F), octal (#Q1077), and binary (#B10101011) numbers
	using ASCII characters. May be used in :STATus subsystem commands.
<arbitrary block>	The syntax is a pound sign (#) followed by a non-zero digit representing the number of digits in the
	subsequent decimal integer. The decimal integer specifies the number of
	8-bit data bytes being sent. This is followed by the actual data. The terminator is a line feed
	asserted with EOI. For example, for transmitting 8 bytes of data, the format could be:

The “2”indicates the number of digits that follow and the two digits “08”indicate the number of data bytes to be transmitted.

A zero-length block has the format: #0<new line>^EOI

<new line > is defined as a single ASCII-encoded byte corresponding to 10 decimal.

Programming Guide 3-11