Desktop User Guides > Professional > Table scripting > Table specification syntax > Element list syntax
 
Element list syntax
Sample script file: ElementSpecifications.mrs
This example script is based on the Museum sample data set. See Running the sample table scripts for information on running the example scripts.
Table and axis syntax describes the syntax for defining the axes of your tables. One of the options is to use an element list to specify the elements that are to be included.
The term element includes categories, user-defined categories, means or other statistics, and any other item that forms part of a variable (in the user interface, the term category is used to refer to all of these items for the sake of simplicity, but strictly speaking they are elements). Each element is usually displayed as a row or column on a table (though in some cases the element might be included in the table but not displayed).
Element list syntax
variable_name
{<Element-List>}

<Element-List> :: = <Element> (, <Element>)*

<Element> ::=  [^] element_name ['Label-text'] [<Properties>]
              | element_name ([LanguageID: 'label-text'])*
              | [^] [element_name] .. [element_name]
              | <Special-Element>
Parameters
variable_name
The name of a variable in the metadata.
element_name
The name of an element in the specified variable.
^
Indicates that the following item is to be excluded.
..
Indicates a range of elements.
LanguageID
The code of a language that exists in the metadata. See Language codes for the Change Language Script snippet.
<Special-Element>
Defines a special non-category element. See Special elements.
<Properties>
Defines one or more properties for the element. See Element properties.
See also
Table specification syntax