Some indication that a string control isn't showing the entire string.

[Lavezza]

I'd like there to be an option to show some kind of indicator on string controls that you aren't seeing the entire string. This should also apply to string constants on the block diagram.

I searched for a similar idea, but couldn't find one. Let me know if there is already a similar idea.

[Lavezza]

I like the ellipisis. I guess there would be an edge case using it for string indicators where the string actually has an ellipisis, but that will probably never happen for most of us.

My only concern about using the tip strip is doing in such a way that any user set tip strip is not overwritten. Also, setting the tip strip is a CPU hog, so I don't know if I like the idea of it being set every time an indicator is updated. (When I say CPU hog I mean that in our application setting 1000's of tip strips across our multiscreen GUI at >5Hz has a significant impact so we no longer do that for dynamic data like update time. We still set the tip strip with static data like channel description.)

[X.]

BTW, meanwhile, has anybody written a VI that takes a string and a maximum length as an input and formats the string (using ellipsis) such that its output lenght is equal to the max length? It would be nice to have an option to have the ellipsis in front, in the center or at the end of the string.

[altenbach]

> BTW, meanwhile, has anybody written a VI that takes a string ...

This is quite tricky because, for a proportional font, the length in pixels is only losely related to the lenght in characters ("mmm" is much longer than "iii", and, depending on the font setting in the OS, it might not even be constant across hardware. (I think there are some LabVIEW tools to sort it out, though...)

[X.]

You are correct, unless the font is courier or the like. But assuming that the user has set a max length that will take care of most cases (your trick of using a mmmmmm word is a good one, I think) and fit in the target indicator, that should be fine.

In my particular case, I want to display plot legends that do not read: data_2011_10_11_settings(cut) but instead: data_2011_10...10mW_1. I am just making this up so the ellipsis is not right in the center, but the idea is I can see that's data set number 1 (indicated by the _1 at the end of a looooong series of similarly name data sets).

[Lavezza]

X, something like this?

[X.]

This will work like a charm. Thanks!

[X.]

I just realized that the ellipsis "solution" is not a very good one for a control, unless it switches back to "no ellipsis" mode (and hence does not show the whole string) when the user attempts to edit the string. I guess that (and other considerations, I am sure) will have NI think twice before they move on with this suggestion... A tip strip approach would do the trick to show the whole string (path, number, etc).

[Yamaeda]

I vote for this whole heartedly, this cost me 3 hours today when a menu item didn't enable in some legacy code ... ofcourse it was another item that was enabling but i couldn't tell due to the string constant not giving any indication there was more.

Probably the constant kept the original size when upgrading to 2011 and with fonts increasing to 15 ...

/Y

[Michael_78]

In the past he XControl has worked well for me using properties available to determine the actual string bounds.  I find my self looking at this thread again as I need a solution which will work for arrays, I am including strings and numerics here. A common mistake by users is long hidden strings, and common panic from users is truncated numerics!

[EricR]

I'll be posting user stories for this idea exchange idea over the next few weeks.  Once some additional details on the feature implementation have been worked out.  When the features are ready, they will be included in the next beta release.