Quotient/Remainder function should have "mod" or "Modulo" as seach and quick drop tags.

[David_L]

Most programming languages have a Mod or Modulo function which is equal to the remainder after a division.  LabVIEW has the Quotient and Remainder function in the palette which is equivalent, but most customers new to LabVIEW come in looking for a Mod function and cannot find it. LabVIEW should probably have this as an alternate function or at least put tags on the Quotient/Remainder function so that it comes up when users search for Mod or Modulo.

 

[Darin.K]

I would add to the documentation as well, otherwise some of these users may be a little confused as to why their code isn't working.  LV uses floored division, other languages use truncated division.  I often do the operation longhand just to remind myself what is going on. 

Ask yourself what is -7 % 3, then see what LV thinks it is.

If I were starting from scratch, I would implement the current method (floored) as the modulo function and have a separate function called remainder using truncated division.  That ship has long since sailed, and I think the best option is better documentation, along with the tagging idea.  I like the look of the proposed alternate function, but in general I am against redundancy.

[muks]

Kudos!!!

[StevenM]

Great thoughts, all.  I reported the documentation suggestions, and we'll consider improvements in a future release.

Thanks for your feedback,

-Steve M

LabVIEW Documentation

[AristosQueue (NI)]

Along with this, a whole lot of math operations should have alternate terms -- "plus" should find "add"... "minus" should find "subtract".

[hecmar.arreola]

When I first started using LabVIEW it took me a few minutes to find this function because I was so use to the Mod or Modulo terminology and expected it to be the same in LabVIEW.  Good suggestion!

[shb]

modulo mentioned in the help text:

http://zone.ni.com/reference/en-XX/help/371361J-01/glang/quotient_and_remainder/

[Darren]

By default, Quick Drop uses a relevancy-based search, which will pick up keywords that have been assigned to built-in functions. The keywords "mod" and "modulo" are currently assigned to the Quotient & Remainder function. When using the relevancy-based search, however, Quick Drop is limited to displaying the top 100 results, and it appears that keyword matches are prioritized below object name matches. So if you have a ton of modules/toolkits installed, a Quick Drop search for 'mod' will probably not list the Quotient & Remainder function (it doesn't on my LabVIEW 2013 Platform DVD + Driver DVD install). It will work, however, with a search for 'modulo'.

All this to say, I'm wondering if it would be a good idea for us to prioritize keyword matches higher in the relevancy-based search results than name matches. This would put Quotient & Remainder at the top of a 'mod' search instead of the bottom.

FYI, the relevancy-based search mechanism in Quick Drop can be enabled/disabled with the "QuickDropFastSearch" INI token in LabVIEW 2009-2012. In LabVIEW 2013, it can be enabled/disabled by going to Quick Drop > Configure... > Options.