Command File

Purpose

ASReml is essentially a batch program controlled with a command file. The command file normally has a filename extension .as.

Which editor

You will need an ASCII file editor to create the command file and to view the various output files.

On unix systems,

vi and emacs are commonly used. ASReml-W is also available.

Under Windows,

there are several suitable program editors available such as ASReml-W and ConText.

General rules

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,

the

// operator splits a line into two logical lines,

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,

reserved words used in specifying the linear model

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;

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.

A minimal job

Every commandfile has at least four lines, in the order

Title line - gives a heading for the job

data field names - as they occur in the data file (indent these lines)

name of the data file

model line

Example

 NIN alliance trial 1989      # Title line
  variety !A                  # names of data fields
  id                          # !A indicates 'variety' is a factor/class variable
  pid                         #    with alphanumeric class names
  raw
  repl 4                      #  4 indicates 'repl' is a factor/class variable
  nloc                        #    coded  1, 2, 3, 4
  yield                       # 'yield' is a variate
  lat
  long
  row 22                      # 'row' and 'column' define plot locations
  column 11                   #       in an 11 x 22 grid
 nin89.asd !skip 1 !DOPATH $1 # datafile line

 !PATH 1                      # RCB analysis
 tabulate yield ~ variety     # request simple variety means
 yield ~ mu variety !r repl   # Model Line
 predict variety              # request predicted variety means

 !PATH 2                       # Spatial Analysis
 yield ~ mu variety
 residual ar1(row, 0.5).ar1(column,0.3)
 predict variety

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