Syntax Rules

General rules

The command file should have a filename extension .as or .asc. In the ASReml command file
  • all characters following a
    • # symbol on a line are ignored,
  • all blank lines are ignored,
  • lines beginning with
    • ! followed by a blank are copied to the .asr file as comments for the output,
  • a blank is the usual separator; TAB is also a separator,
  • maximum line length is 2000 characters,
  • a comma as the last character on the line is used to indicate that the current list is continued on the next line; a
    • comma is not needed when ASReml knows how many values to read,
  • names of predefined
    • model terms and variance structures are case sensitive; they need to be typed exactly as defined: they may not be abbreviated.
  • a qualifier is a particular letter sequence beginning with an
    • ! which sets an option or changes some aspect of ASReml;

    Qualifiers

  • some qualifiers require arguments,
  • qualifiers must appear on the correct line,
  • qualifier identifiers are not case sensitive,
  • qualifier identifiers may be truncated to 3 characters.

    • Example


     Split plot analysis - oat  Variety.Nitrogen  # Title Line
 # "C:\new.txt  (Created by Genstat: 13:54:37 06/01/99)"
 #  blocks nitrogen   subplots variety      wplots  yield
 #       1 0.6ct           1 Marvellous        1    156
 #       1 0.4ct           2 Marvellous        1    118
 #       1 0.2ct           3 Marvellous        1    140
 #       1 0ct             4 Marvellous        1    105
 #       1 0ct             1 Victory           2    111
 #       1 0.2ct           2 Victory           2    130
 #       1 0.6ct           3 Victory           2    174
 #       1 0.4ct           4 Victory           2    157
  blocks    *
  nitrogen  !A
  subplots
  variety   !A
  wplots    *
  yield
 oats.asd !skip 2  # The qualifier !SKIP 2 says to ignore
                  # the first 2 lines in the data file

 yield ~ mu variety nitrogen variety.nitrogen,
  !r blocks blocks.wplots  # Comma means model is continued

 predict nitrogen
 predict variety
 predict nitrogen variety !sed

 predict var nit !fitmar !sed
 predict var nit !fitmar !sed !AVERAGE block
 predict var !only variety !print
    This job from the examples folder performs a split plot analysis of an oat experiment highlighting a variety of predict statements.

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