6.3 Syntax Variants

There are three variants of command syntax, which vary only in how they detect the end of one command and the start of the next.

In interactive mode , which is the default for syntax typed at a command prompt, a period as the last non-blank character on a line ends a command. A blank line also ends a command.

In batch mode , an end-of-line period or a blank line also ends a command. Additionally, it treats any line that has a non-blank character in the leftmost column as beginning a new command. Thus, in batch mode the second and subsequent lines in a command must be indented.

Regardless of the syntax mode, a plus sign, minus sign, or period in the leftmost column of a line is ignored and causes that line to begin a new command. This is most useful in batch mode, in which the first line of a new command could not otherwise be indented, but it is accepted regardless of syntax mode.

The default mode for reading commands from a file is auto mode. It is the same as batch mode, except that a line with a non-blank in the leftmost column only starts a new command if that line begins with the name of a PSPP command. This correctly interprets most valid PSPP syntax files regardless of the syntax mode for which they are intended.

The --interactive (or -i) or --batch (or -b) options set the syntax mode for files listed on the PSPP command line. See Main Options, for more details.