Combine Items with Matching String Label?

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Jacob E2 asked May 10, '22 Jacob E2 commented May 10, '22

Combine Items with Matching String Label?

Hello,

I am trying to combine 2 items with a matching "Order" Label. Also, I do not want any items to enter the combiner until there is a match. I found a question and model that seems to do exactly what I need. So I modified the logic from Matt Long's answer on this question (Similar Question) to match my labels. It worked in my simple example model using random numbers 1-10, but failed when I tried to implement it in my much larger actual model. My actual model has string values instead of integers for the "Order" label value. So I'm assuming that is what is causing it to fail.

Can this logic (or simpler logic) be modified to work with labels that contain strings?

Model:Combiner Match Items by Order.fsm

Thanks,
Jacob

Software Version:

FlexSim 22.0.1

combiner combiner itemtype

1652192321459.png (98.2 KiB)

combiner-match-items-by-order.fsm (45.8 KiB)

Answer 1 · 2022-05-10T14:55:11Z

Felix Möhlmann answered May 10, '22 Jacob E2 commented May 10, '22

You have to adjust the pull code to read the label as a string. Currently they are assigned to an integer variable, in which case any string evaluates to 0. So later in the code, the number 0 is compared to the other item's labels, resulting in no match.

Don't forget to also change the reset value of the 'MatchedOrder' label on the combiner. The code below assumes an empty string to be the default value.

/**Matching Orders*/
string MatchedOrder = current.MatchedOrder;
if (MatchedOrder != "") {
    //We previously matched an item so pull the matching order from the other queue
    if (item.Order == MatchedOrder) {
        current.MatchedOrder = "";
        return 1;
    }
    return 0;
}

string Order = item.Order;
//Search the opposite queue for the same order
int otherPort = port % 2 + 1; //Grab the other port rank so we look at the other queue
treenode queue = current.as(Object).inObjects[otherPort];
for (int i = 1; i <= queue.subnodes.length; i++) {
    if (queue.subnodes[i].Order == Order) {
        //Found a matching order, save the order on a label
        current.MatchedOrder = Order;
        //Now pull the item that just entered the original queue
        return 1;
    }
}
//No matches, pull nothing
return 0;

· 1

Jacob E2 commented · May 10, 2022 at 03:46 PM

Thank you, Felix!

Exactly what I needed!

-Jacob

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