Using Read Methods

Read{type}

Read{type} parses a single item of data from the formatted read buffer. It does not process a newline or END.

There are five type suffixes for Read{type} methods, one each for the types Char, String, Int64, UInt64, and Double. Values of smaller integer or real types are cast up if needed.

Note that there are four overloads to the ReadString method. These allow for returning String or StringBuilder results, and for specifying the number of characters to be read into the string.

ReadLine{type}

ReadLine{type} starts at the beginning of the formatted read buffer and reads characters that can be converted to the type specified by the return type of the method. Characters from the first character that cannot be converted to the type specified (if any), up to but not including the first EOL character, are read and ignored. All characters up to and including the EOL character are removed from the formatted read buffer. (If the return type is Char, one byte is read from the formatted read buffer and is converted to a UNICODE character before it is returned.)

There are five type suffixes for ReadLine{type} methods, one each for the types Char, String, Int64, UInt64, and Double. Values of smaller integer or real types are cast up if needed.

Note that there are two overloads to the ReadLine method that return a String or StringBuilder result.

ReadListOf{type}

ReadListOf{type} formats an array of data as a comma-separated list and adds it to the formatted write buffer. It does not add a newline or END, and it does not send any data to the instrument.

ReadListOf{type} has 20 methods and overloads. It supports 10 data types: Byte, SByte, Int64, UInt64, Int32, UInt32, Int16, UInt16, Single, and Double. The smaller integer and real types are supported in order to avoid the performance penalty that would otherwise be incurred to upcast those types to arrays of the larger types when making the method call.

Char is not supported because ReadString can easily read the same data.

For each of the type-specific methods, there are two overloads:

• One overload takes no arguments and returns the array that was read.
• The other takes three arguments: the array elements to be returned (an out parameter), an index that indicates where to start returning elements from the array returned by the resource, and a count that indicates how many elements to parse, starting with index.

ReadLineListOf{type}

ReadLineListOf{type} performs the same tasks as ReadListOf{type} but characters from the first character that cannot be converted to the type specified, if any, up to but not including the first EOL character, are read and ignored. All characters up to and including the EOL character are removed from the formatted read buffer.

ReadLineListOf{type} has 20 methods and overloads, which correspond exactly to the ReadListOf{type} overloads.

ReadBinaryBlockOf{type}

ReadBinaryBlockOf{type} starts at the beginning of the formatted read buffer and reads characters from an IEEE 488 block or raw binary array that can be converted to an array of the type specified by the return type of the method, until the end of the block is reached. The block is removed from the formatted read buffer.

ReadBinaryBlockOf{type} has 40 methods and overloads. It supports the same 10 data types as ReadListOf{type}.

For each of the type-specific methods, there are four overloads:

• One overload takes no arguments and returns the array that was read.
• The second overload takes a Boolean that indicates whether the method should expect the block to start with the next byte in the read buffer or not. If not, the method reads and discards characters from the read buffer until it finds the first character in the block, or a termination character, or an END. If it finds a block, it continues to read and parse the block.
• The third overload takes three arguments: a reference to the array to be returned, an index that indicates where to start returning elements from the block returned by the resource, and a count that indicates how many elements to parse, starting with index.
• The fourth overload takes four arguments, combining the arguments of the second and third overloads, all with the same meanings.

ReadLineBinaryBlockOf{type}

ReadLineBinaryBlockOf{type} performs the same tasks as ReadBinaryBlockOf{type} but does append a newline (and END, if END is enabled) to the formatted data, sends whatever is in the write buffer to the instrument, and flushes the buffer.

ReadLineBinaryBlockOf{type} has 40 methods and overloads, which correspond closely, but not exactly, to the ReadBinaryBlockOf{type} overloads. In particular, none of the ReadLineBinaryBlockOf{type} methods or overloads has a count parameter.

Miscellaneous Read Methods

There are a few Read methods that do not fit neatly into any of the categories above:

• ReadUntilEnd()
• ReadUntilMatch(Char)
• ReadUntilMatch(String, Boolean)
• ReadWhileMatch(String)
• Skip(Int64)
• SkipString(String)
• SkipUntilEnd()

Refer to the linked reference pages for more information about these methods.

Note that the Skip methods are included with the Read methods because they operate on the Formatted I/O read buffer and complement the set of Read methods.