Com-interop Enum to Switch Case in LabVIEW - labview

I am using a COM-Interop in LabVIEW, I have some functions that return an enum,
I want to make a switch-case structure on this enum but I can't I get a bad wiring error but when I put an indicator to function output I see that the enum returned as expected.
So, my problem is I can't make this switch-case from my enum that exported from interop dll
edited:
I returned the eTestType enum from the node

For some reason, your node returns Ring, not Enum data type.
In LabVIEW, Ring data type consists of string and number value. But string could have any numeric value (they do not necessary go in sequential order).
Enum also have string and number value. But, numeric values go in order, starting from 0.
So one way of you could use your node is to connect ring output to Case Structure, and then use numeric values of your ring as selector.
Another way to do it - but just in case if ring values go sequentially, starting from 0 - to create Enum in LabVIEW with the same string value as you expect from your COM-Interop node, and convert Ring values to Enum values. Then, you could use Enum as selector for Case Structure.
UPDATE: "Number to Enum.vim" is for LabVIEW 2017 and higher. If you use older versions, then do the following workaround:
So you have cluster with enum, and you bundle there ring value. Then when cluster in unbundled, there is enum value.

Related

Checking to see if an image format supports a usage in Vulkan?

If I want to see what an image format can be used for I can do the vkGetPhysicalDeviceImageFormatProperties2() and set the usage flag for the image format. I've noticed if the format isn't supported for those usages and settings the structure I pass in is set to all zero, and I can know if the format supports those uses. So if I want to know if VK_FORMAT_R8G8B8_UINT supports sampling from a shader I set the VK_IMAGE_USAGE_SAMPLED_BIT in the usage flags and call that function.
What I wanted to know is if that's equivalent to calling another function, called vkGetPhysicalDeviceFormatProperties2(), exactly the same name but without 'image' in the name, give that function the format, and check whether the VK_IMAGE_USAGE_SAMPLED_BIT is set.
So using the first method I give the format and usages I want from it, and then check if the values returned are zero max width, max height, etc, meaning those usages aren't supported, versus the second method of passing the format, getting back the flags and then checking the flags.
Are these two methods equivalent?
TL;DR: Do your image format checking properly: ask how you can use the format, then ask what functionality is available from usable format&usage combinations.
If you call vkGetPhysicalDeviceImageFormatProperties2 with usage flags and the like that don't correspond to a supported image type, you get an error: VK_ERROR_FORMAT_NOT_SUPPORTED. It inherits this due to the fact that it is said to "behave similarly to vkGetPhysicalDeviceImageFormatProperties", which has an explicit statement about this error:
If format is not a supported image format, or if the combination of format, type, tiling, usage, and flags is not supported for images, then vkGetPhysicalDeviceImageFormatProperties returns VK_ERROR_FORMAT_NOT_SUPPORTED.
Now normally, a function which gives rise to an error will yield undefined values in any return values. But there is a weird exception:
If the combination of parameters to vkGetPhysicalDeviceImageFormatProperties2 is not supported by the implementation for use in vkCreateImage, then all members of imageFormatProperties will be filled with zero.
However, there's an explicit note saying that this was old, bad behavior and is only preserved for compatibility's sake. Being a compatibility feature means that you can rely on it, but you shouldn't. Also, it only applies to the imageFormatProperties data and not any of the extension structures you can pass.
So it's best to just ignore this and ask your questions in the right order.

Determining gnuradio block input and output types directly from block

I know that from their input and output signatures, it's possible to determine the size of a gnuradio block's input and output items. I am wondering whether it's also possible to directly determine input and output type (float vs complex etc) from a block.
Within the GNU Radio runtime, only the size is stored. Type information only exists in the source code, and in GNU Radio Companion if you are using that.
So, no, you cannot get type information from a block object that already exists — except by imperfect outside-information strategies like looking up the block's name in the installed GRC data files to guess what the type is.
Because there are no types but only sizes, items can be reinterpreted if they are the same size, which may occasionally be useful; for example, you can connect a block producing "complex" to one expecting "vector of 2 floats" and get a useful result since a complex is represented as two floats.

Get Text Symbol Programmatically With ID

Is there any way of programmatically getting the value of a Text Symbol at runtime?
The scenario is that I have a simple report that calls a function module. I receive an exported parameter in variable LV_MSG of type CHAR1. This indicates a certain status message created in the program, for instance F (Fail), X (Match) or E (Error). I currently use a CASE statement to switch on LV_MSG and fill another variable with a short description of the message. These descriptions are maintained as text symbols that I retrieve at compile time with text-MS# where # is the same as the possible returns of LV_MSG, for instance text-MSX has the value "Exact Match Found".
Now it seems to me that the entire CASE statement is unnecessary as I could just assign to my description variable the value of the text symbol with ID 'MS' + LV_MSG (pseudocode, would use CONCATENATE). Now my issue is how I can find a text symbol based on the String representation of its ID at runtime. Is this even possible?
If it is, my code would look cleaner and I wouldn't have to update my actual code when new messages are added in the function module, as I would simply have to add a new text symbol. But would this approach be any faster or would it in fact degrade the report's performance?
Personally, I would probably define a domain and use the fixed values of the domain to represent the values. This way, you would even get around the string concatenation. You can use the function module DD_DOMVALUE_TEXT_GET to easily access the language-dependent text of a domain value.
To access the text elements of a program, use a function module like READ_TEXT_ELEMENTS.
Be aware that generic programming like this will definitely slow down your program. Whether it would make your code look cleaner is in the eye of the beholder - if the values change rarely, I don't see why a simple CASE statement should be inferior to some generic text access.
Hope I understand you correctly but here goes. This is possible with a little trickery, all the text symbols in a report are defined as variables in the program (with the name text-abc where abc is the text ID). So you can use the following:
data: lt_all_text type standard table of textpool with default key,
lsr_text type ref to textpool.
"Load texts - you will only want to do this once
read textpool sy-repid into lt_all_text language sy-langu.
sort lt_all_Text by entry.
"Find a text, the field KEY is the text ID without TEXT-
read table lt_all_text with key entry = i_wanted_text
reference into lsr_text binary search.
If you want the address you can add:
field-symbols: <l_text> type any.
data l_name type string.
data lr_address type ref to data.
concatenate 'TEXT-' lsr_text->key into l_name.
assign (l_name) to <l_text>.
if sy-subrc = 0.
get reference of <l_text> into lr_address.
endif.
As vwegert pointed out this is probably not the best solution, for error handling rather use message classes or exception objects. This is useful in other cases though so now you know how.

Enumerating Strings as bytes?

I was looking for a way to enumerate String types in (vb).NET, but .NET enums only accept numeric type values.
The first alternative I came across was to create a dictionary of my enum values and the string I want to return. This worked, but was hard to maintain because if you changed the enum you would have to remember to also change the dictionary.
The second alternative was to set field attributes on each enum member, and retrieve it using reflection. Surely enough this worked aswell and also solved the maintenance problem, but it uses reflection and I've always read that using reflection should be a last resort thing.
So I started thinking and I came up with this: every ASCII character can be represented as a hexadecimal value, and you can assign hexadecimal values to enum members.
You could get rid of the attributes, assign the hexadecimal values to the enum members. Then, when you need the text value, convert the value to a byte array and use System.Text.Encodings.ASCII.GetString(enumMemberBytes) to get the string value.
Now speaking out of experience, anything I come up with is usually either flawed or just plain wrong. What do you guys think about this approach? Is there any reason not to do it like that?
Thanks.
EDIT
As pointed out by David W, enum member values are limited in length, depending on the underlying type (integer by default). So yes, I believe my method works but you are limited to characters in the ASCII table, with a maximum length of 4 or 8 characters using integers or longs respectively.
The easiest way I have found to dynamically parse a String representation of an Enumeration into the actual Enumeration type was to do the following:
Private EnumObject
[Undefined]
ValueA
ValueB
End Enum
dim enumVal as EnumObject = DirectCast([Enum].Parse(GetType(EnumObject), "ValueA"), EnumObject)
This removes the need to maintain a dictionary and allows you to just handle strings instead of converting to an Int or a Long. This does use reflection, but I have not come across any issues as long as you catch and handle any exceptions with the String Parse.

Is it possible to create custom byte in .net

I am creating a WCF in vb.net inside VS 2010. I have a handful of properties that are currently bytes (0 - 255) and represent different test scores. Is it possible for me to create my own type based on this that will only allow values between 0 and 110? For example, if I have
Dim a as Byte
a = 256
I will get "Constant expression not representable in type 'Byte'." before the code is compiled. I want to have something like this for my own type so the below code would give me "Constant expression not representable in type 'myByte'."
Dim a as myByte
a = 110
You can only use predefined (native) types, as Byte, and implement some features, like overloading operators to check minimum and maximum values. However, not every operator can be overloaded, what, in this case, includes the assignement operator '='.
Check http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/8edha89s%28v=vs.71%29.aspx and the tutorials if it helps somewhat.
To assign a value tp your type you can make use of properties or methods that set the value checking for boudaries and other conditions, perfectly doable.
But to define it as a native... negative, sir.
Nope, I don't think that's possible. You'll have to use a constructor to initialize your myByte instance and do the range check at runtime (not sure how useful that would be).