String expression in Assign Labels

Question

question

Mischa Spelt asked Sep 10 2020 at 1:07 PM Phil BoBo edited Sep 11 2020 at 4:09 PM

String expression in Assign Labels

When I enter a string expression such as "Hello " + "World" in Assign Labels, it is not parsed correctly: the label is assigned the value

Hello " + "World

As a workaround, I can put the expression in brackets. Then suddenly FlexSim considers it a script and shows the "Code editor" button to the right of the field, and everything works as expected with a label value of

Hello World

Sample model: AssignLabelsConcatStrings.fsm

Software Version:

FlexSim 20.2.2

flexsim 20.2.2 assign labels strings

1599743237078.png (42.5 KiB)

assignlabelsconcatstrings.fsm (31.0 KiB)

______

Cookie preferences

Your privacy is important to us and so is an optimal experience. To help us customize information and build applications, we collect data about your use of this site.

May we collect and use your data?

Learn more about the Third Party Services we use and our Privacy Statement.

Strictly necessary – required for our site to work and to provide services to you

These cookies allow us to record your preferences or login information, respond to your requests or fulfill items in your shopping cart.

YES

Improve your experience – allows us to show you what is relevant to you

These cookies enable us to provide enhanced functionality and personalization. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we use to deliver information and experiences tailored to you. If you do not allow these cookies, some or all of these services may not be available for you.

YES

NO

Customize your advertising – permits us to offer targeted advertising to you

These cookies collect data about you based on your activities and interests in order to show you relevant ads and to track effectiveness. By collecting this data, the ads you see will be more tailored to your interests. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

YES

NO

Are you sure you want a less customized experience?

We can access your data only if you select "yes" for the categories on the previous screen. This lets us tailor our marketing so that it's more relevant for you. You can change your settings at any time by visiting our privacy statement

Your experience. Your choice.

We care about your privacy. The data we collect helps us understand how you use our products, what information you might be interested in, and what we can improve to make your engagement with Autodesk more rewarding.

May we collect and use your data to tailor your experience?

Explore the benefits of a customized experience by managing your privacy settings for this site or visit our Privacy Statement to learn more about your options.

Answer 1 · 2020-09-10T16:06:43Z

Phil BoBo answered Sep 10 2020 at 4:06 PM Phil BoBo edited Sep 11 2020 at 4:09 PM

Yes, that field assumes that if the first character is a quotation mark, that you are entering a string.

As you did, if you want to evaluate it as code, then wrap the expression in parentheses.

· 3

Mischa Spelt commented · Sep 11 2020 at 11:21 AM

Perhaps you could consider supporting it without the parentheses as well. After all, basically everywhere else in the software this does work. I realize the field is not a Universal Edit because it doesn't a blue border, but from a user perspective, based on my previous experiences, I did really expect this to work. Thanks.

1 ·

Phil BoBo ♦♦ Mischa Spelt commented · Sep 11 2020 at 2:30 PM

Universal Edits no longer draw blue. That is a Universal Edit. That's why it behaves this way.

"After all, basically everywhere else in the software this does work."

Where else exactly in the software can you enter a string value that isn't executed as code and "this does work"?

I'm trying to find fields that return strings and work differently than this field, but I keep finding fields that return strings that work the same way as this field. This is how these fields have always worked.

For example, Push To List Partition ID:

Event-triggered Source Token Name:

Maybe these types of fields shouldn't behave like this, but they do and they always have. Precisely because they are Universal Edits.

0 ·

1599836412177.png (50.3 KiB)

1599836421278.png (18.9 KiB)

1599836427399.png (13.7 KiB)

Phil BoBo ♦♦ Phil BoBo ♦♦ commented · Sep 11 2020 at 4:03 PM

After discussing this with the developers who implemented it, the best solution seems to be to improve how the Universal Edit determines that the user entered a string. I'll add a case to the dev list to improve that algorithm to consider more than just the first character to determine whether it is a string.

0 ·

question