Agilent Technologies Agilent E5250A - Manual (Page 140)

6-4 Agilent E5250A User’s Guide, Edition 11
Programming the E5250A
SCPI Programming Basics
SCPI Command Hierarchy
The SCPI commands use a hierarchical structure for subsystem commands similar
to a file system. For example, in :ROUT:CONN:RULE command, the hierarchy is
as follows:
ROUT root
CONN sub-level 1
RULE sub-level 2
The colon at the beginning of the command means root.
The colons between two command keywords means moving down to a lower level.
NOTE Using a Semicolon to Reduce Typing
A semicolon enables two commands to be sent on the same line.
For example, :ROUT:CONN:RULE ALL,FREE;SEQ ALL,BBM is the same as
the following two commands:
:ROUT:CONN:RULE ALL,FREE
:ROUT:CONN:SEQ ALL,BBM
So, using a semicolon reduces typing and simplifies the program.
A command terminator (such as carriage return) resets the path to root.