question

I'm about to describe a change between older versions of FlexSim and FlexSim 2017. The simple answer is bolded down below if you don't care about all the extra stuff.

With older versions of FlexSim, the only data types that a global table could hold were either numbers or strings. So in the "Global Table Lookup" picklist option, if you chose "Number", the underlying code would assume the value in the table cell being looked up is a number and use the gettablenum() command to retrieve that value from the cell. If you chose "Expression", the underlying code would assume the value is a string and would use the executetablecell() command to execute that string as FlexScript and return whatever the FlexScript evaluates to. The "Automatic" option would try to determine the data type of the table cell first, then do one of those two options.

With the new dot syntax stuff, global tables can now hold 7 different types (all of which are named in the Global Tables section of the User Manual). One of those types is FlexScript.

Also, when using the Global Table Lookup option in a Delay activity, the code no longer calls the same commands as described above. Instead, the code creates a variable that is a Table class and uses it to reference the specified global table. That variable can then access cells in the global table by using bracket operators, like this (this is not the same code found in Global Table Lookup):

Table table = Table("Fred"); // Get a reference to a global table named Fred
return table[1][1]; // Return the value from the table cell found at row 1 and column 1

So when a value is returned from the global table, whatever is returned depends on what data type that specified table cell was set to. When a cell is using the FlexScript data type, it will execute the value of the cell as FlexScript and return whatever the FlexScript returns.

All of your old Delay activities will still work after upgrading the model to FlexSim 2017. However, if you add any more Delay activities and use the Global Table Lookup option in your upgraded model, I would suggest changing the data type of the appropriate cells in your global table to the FlexScript data type by right-clicking on individual cells, rows, or columns, like this:

Otherwise, any new Delay activities will treat the values in those cells as strings and the delay time will probably end up being 0. Making this change will not affect your old Delay activities, as the executetablecell() command will still return the right data even if the cells are set to the FlexScript data type.