Expressions

You can add ‘Expressions’ to attributes. With an expression builder you can create your own expression for each attribute.

Create an expression

In the ‘Expression’ column, click on the three dots. A pop-up window appears. This is the ‘Expression builder’ or ‘Expression Editor’.

The expression builder has four sections. The top section is the editor, here you can create your expression. On the most left section, you see four categories. The center section shows functions, operators, fields or constants, dependent what you choose on the left section. The most right section shows information about what you select in the center section.

Choose ‘Functions’ on the left and scroll down in the center section till you see function “Substring('', , )”. With this function you can retrieve a substring from a string. With a double-click the function appears in the editor. Now we must enter a String, StartPosition and a Length: Substring('String', StartPosition, Length). For String we want the value of the attribute. Delete the two quotes in the function and select ‘Fields’ on the left screen. Double-click on ‘[ValueAsText]’ to use this field in your expression. Fill in 2 and 4 respectively at StartPosition and Length. Your expression will now look like this:

Click on OK and your expression is ready.

Notes:

1. If the expression is wrong or the expression can’t return a value, Typical Manager® will leave the attribute empty. For an example. If you use the expression Substring([ValueAsText], 2, 4), and the attribute value is ‘Test’, the expression can’t return a value because the attribute value has only 4 characters. Begin counting from 2 with length 4 isn’t possible.

2. The result of an expression is only graphical, it won’t be written to the database. The original value is the value from the database.

3. If you have an expression on a ‘Lookup list’ attribute, the result of the expression must be one of the values which are available in the lookup list. If you use a ‘Numeric’ lookup list, you also must take into account the ‘Unit’.

4. Attributes with an expressions contains a tooltip which shows the expression, the original value and the actual value. This tooltip is available in every window of Typical Manager®.

5. Expressions are case sensitive. So [ValueASTEXT will not work.

Expression fields

The attribute expression can use different kind of fields in expressions.

Field:

[ValueAsNumeric]
[ValueAsText]
[<AttributeName>]

With the use of the correct expression it is possible to get field values from other attribute inside a module, product, template, ect.

The field list will be filled with all attributes that can be used within that attribute expression.

By using the flowing expression "[Cable length (m)]" the value as text of the attribute "Cable length (m)" is retrieved.

If the expression uses a numeric attribute the 'value as numeric' used for calculation

If the expression uses a selection attribute the true/false value is used for if statements

with other attributes the 'value as text' is used.

when an attribute requires a different value from the attribute a value propertie is used.

Expression format: [{AttributeName}].[{RequiredValue}] or [{AttributeName}.{RequiredValue}] (e.g "[Cable length (m)].[ValueAsText]" )

This can also be used for [ValueAsNumeric]

This expression will only work if the attribute with the expression and the attribute that is used within the expression are both in the same 'owner'.

An 'owner' can be a:

Module (e.g. Electrical module or Logical module)
Template (e.g. Scada template or document template)
Product
Panel
Project

Note:

With expressions it is not possible to retrieve attribute values from attribute in other modules of products.

To do so, see: Attribute relations

When an attribute name is changed. Any Expression that uses that attribute will also be changed with the new attribute name.

Changing an expression

It is possible to change expressions for attribute used on Modules, Templates ect. (See owners above)

When doing so the 'Expression editor' is shown, and in the field list only the attributes are visible that exist within the 'owner'.

Changing an expression will only be set in derived attributes which have the same expression.

So if expressions are changed inside modules / products (owners), then these expressions are not overridden when the attribute definition is changed and the attributes on module/ products (owners) have different expressions.

Note:

It is also possible to change expressions by copy and paste the cell or text.

Variable types and examples

Variable types:

Attribute variable types TM	Variable type	Example
Text	String	‘This is a string’ This is not a string
Numeric	Int or double	2 or 2,3
Choice	Bool	TRUE or FALSE
Article	String (Article number)	MOE.PKZM0-4
Lookup list	Text or Numeric	Hello or 3

Examples:

Attribute type	Value	Expression	Result
Text	CONTROL VALVE	Substring([ValueAsText], 2, 4)	NTRO
Text		Now()	01-01-2013 00:00:00
Text		Substring(‘Testing’, 0, 3)	Tes
Numeric	10	ToInt([ValueAsText]) / 2 ([ValueAsNumeric] / 2) + 10	5 15
Numeric		Now()	01-01-2013 00:00:00
Choice	True	Iif([ValueAsText] == 1, TRUE, FALSE)	False
Article	MOE.PKZM0-4	Substring([ValueAsText], 1, 3)	OE.
Lookup list	Hello	Iif([ValueAsText] == 'Yellow', 'Bye' , 'Sky')	Sky
Lookup list	1 mm	Iif([ValueAsText] == '1mm', '1 mm' , '5 mm')	1 mm

Text		[Project.Name]	Name of the project of the attribute
Text		[Panel.Name]	Name of the panel of the attribute
Text		[Module.Name]	Name of the module of the attribute

In this case we have a ‘Take over: Product –Product’ attribute. So, if you use this attribute in a Product, the [ValueAsText] will retrieve the Product name as a string (therefor we don’t need the quotes). So, if the name of the Product is ‘CONTROL VALVE’, this attribute will show ‘NTRO’. Startposition is 2 (begin counting from 0) and Length is 4, and as a result of that we get ‘NTRO’:

Special expressions

Beside the [ValueAsText] field, there are some other fields which can be used in attribute expressions. These fields work like the [ValueAsText] field. Instead of [ValueAsText] you can use the following fields:

Attribute type	Remark	Expression	Result
Text	Only for Project attributes	[Project].[Name]	Name of the project
Text	Only for Panel attributes	[Panel].[Name]	Name of the panel
Text	Only for attributes in modules	[Module].[Name]	Name of the module

Other examples:

[Project].[ProjectId]
[Project].[Principal]
[Project].[PrincipalId]
[Project].[EndUser]

[Panel].[Description] (Any '[Panel]' expression is only possible for panel attribute and attributes in an Electrical Module)

[Module].[Enabled]
[Module].[Selected]
[Module].[Group]
[Module].[SubGroup]
[Module].[Description]
[Module].[Function]
[Product].[Id]

Article attribute expressions:

An article attribute can work with special article expressions. These expressions makes it possible to get specific data from an article attribute. For the expressions to work, the article attribute need to have an article selected. The special expressions work like the [ValueAsText] field. Instead of [ValueAsText] you can type [Article].[******]. Where the ****** are shown, you can fill in a column name which you can find in the article settings in library.

Examples:

Expression	Result
[Article].[Description1]	Gets the first description of the article
[Article].[Type_number]	Gets the type number of the article
[Article].[Some other available column name ]	Gets the data of the named column from the article

Notes:

1. When a column name has spaces in between, you can fill these up with a "_" in the expression.

2. These special expressions are case sensitive. So [Project].[PROJECTID] will not work.