Label assignment/match value problem

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shanice.c asked Oct 31, '21 Felix Möhlmann commented Nov 1, '21

Label assignment/match value problem

In "match", token will keep going through following activity only when the value of token label is same as the text in yellow area. What filled in yellow field is the parameter that is being reference.

In "assign", it will assign the involved parameter value to the token's label value. Ex: when on entry a Queue, the token is assigned the flow item's label value. So my understand is the "involved parameter value" is also what filled in yellow area.

I have used above two operations before, But in "match value" description, it says it will match the "involved parameter value" to "the value in the Label Name or Value column". Until here, I'm confused if I misunderstand the description literally means, and found less example model that use match value operation in this forum. May I ask what's "involved parameter value" means? When is the occasion to use "match value"? Thank you!

Software Version:

FlexSim 21.2.0

match value

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Answer 1 · 2021-10-31T10:22:46Z

Joerg Vogel answered Oct 31, '21 Felix Möhlmann commented Nov 1, '21

An item object is entering a queue. For a better understanding I call it now iObj and any other items, which can possibly entering, are called part.

iObj is a reference to itself.
token.item is a label with a value as reference to on existing item in the scope of your model.
If the references of iObj and token.item matches the token will leave the activity, otherwise it will stay until a part is entering the queue. The involved parameter is item as the name of the label of token.item. It is here just the name and you may have called it differently. So you would compare your name of your label with iObj.

If there is a match, then you need not to assign iObj to for example token.item, because it exists already.

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Joerg Vogel commented · Oct 31, 2021 at 11:05 AM

In cases when there is a difference to the meaning of “item” as a direct pointer name or label name and a reference to the object flowitem, it would have been nice to call the label at tokens in process flow tutorials and templates differently like “part”.

It is very confusing, if you assign item to token.item. The value you assign labels to is evaluating a source code snippet template in the background. This source code snippet has got a header with a declaration of some variables. Those are often current and item. It looks like they are functions or commands, but in fact they are just names for declared variables. And in edit fields you parse the declared variable name into the label you want assign a value for.
Most confusing is today, there had been a command in the past of FlexSim which was named item.

Sometimes it is not clever to overload names with different meanings, if someone want to learn a new scripting language.

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Felix Möhlmann Joerg Vogel commented · Nov 01, 2021 at 07:19 AM

To add to the answer:

"match" compares the event data (Entering Item or Input Port) to the value of the given label on the token and only reacts if the values match.

"match value" on the other hand compares it directly to the value you entered in the "Label Name or Value" field. It's used if the value you want to match is static.

Let's take the example of a queue with multiple inputs. An activity should only react to an item entering through a specific input. In that case, you'd choose "match value" and write the rank of that input port in the "Input Port" field. So, if you enter "1", the activity would only react to items entering through the first port.

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