LV feature? Editing a list of cases with ellipsis...

[X.]

Very trivial question (I think), but for whatever reason, I could not figure it out from the Help. I am suspecting a CAR candidate...

I have a case structure whose selector is connected to an enumerated control. One of the case diagrams being common to several of the enumerated values, I appreciated the ability of LV to auto complete the names of the enumerated values as I typed them in the selector label (which BTW has no "Properties" even though the contextual menu offers to look at "Properties". Check out this "feature" NI).

LV is so clever than when the list of enum values increases and there are consecutive values (value 4, value 5, value 6), it will simplify the display by introducing a (short) ellipsis: value 4..value 6.

Now after a while, I decided that in fact I need a special case for Value 5. That's when I would need to be able to see all the values in the case selector in order to delete "Value 5" from it. But I can't switch back to this display mode, can I?

If I create an additional case to go around this problem, I can type in "Value 5" in it, but of course this is going to break the VI, since the case structure has now TWO cases for "Value 5". Still, I can't edit the case selector list with an ellipsis, so I have to delete the ellipsis. In the trivial example I am discussing here, that's all I have to do (and replace the ellispsis by a comma) to get: Value 4, Value 6.

Now, what about a case that reads: Value 4..Value 22 and I want to isolate Value 13? What about a case that reads "Germany..Portugal"  and I want to remove "Greece"? You get the idea.

The bottomline, unless again I am missing something obvious, is that this is a problematic "feature" of the Case Structure. If I am not mistaken, I'd like to see a CAR for it, or I will go ahead and post this to the Idea Exchange.

Tested in LV 2011.

Note: There are a few related posts here and there (and many more).

[KatieC]

Thank you for bringing this up. At this time, this is not considered a bug and thus no CAR is needed--this is considered expected behavior. However, many other customers share your point of view. There is a specific suggestion on the LabVIEW Idea Exchange regarding this issue. I encourage you to give the idea Kudos; R&D looks at these suggestions for future improvements on LabVIEW. 

Also, I was looking into the "Properties" issue you mention. Where are you seeing it reference you to properties? Step by step instructions would be nice (i.e. go to LV Help or turn on context help and scroll over this item, etc.). If any of our documentation is in error, we would like to get it fixed! 

Thank you!

Katie

[X.]

Good point. I kudoed the suggestion. I strongly encourage NI to fix this "feature".

Concerning the other point, here is what I see when I right-click on the Case selector:

If I select "Properties", nothing happens (as it should probably). But why is it visible in the first place if it has no function?

My 2 cts.

[Matthew_Kelton]

What version of LV?  In 2011, I get a dialog that only has two items - whether the label is visbile and the text string for the label.  But, I dod get something after selecting Properties.

[KatieC]

When you click on Properties, you should see the Properties Dialog Box:

This box allows you to specify which elements of the object are visible. In this instance, it allows you to change if the label is visible or not and what the label says. However, for other objects, this dialog box may allow you to set a caption, change the size, specify the transparency, etc. To see what options are available in this box for ALL objects, click the help button in the properties dialog box and it will take you to Help. However, the options available are dependent on the object specified. 

Katie

[X.]

Guys, you are not READING. I said: when I right-click the Case SELECTOR.

I agree that when you right-click the border of the case structure, you get what you are describing. However, I invite you to do the same on the Case Selector. In LV 2011 and with my mouse, it results in zilch.

[Darin.K]

The Case SELECTOR is actually what you wire to, the Selector Label is what you are describing.  The next time I try to get the properties of that will be the first, you need to describe what you would like to happen in this case:

1) No menu item -> Seems like a very special case since the Properties item is quite ubiquitous.

2) Empty property window -> Now you need an extra click to get rid of it.

3) Disable the Properties menu item -> This seems logical, but I think that the properties dialog is dynamically populated (one reason why it is so slow), so LV does not really know ahead of time that it is empty.  Applies to #1 as well I suppose.

4) Give you the same window as everywhere else, ie. just the label.

I think I like the current behavior better than any of my alternatives, number 4 would be a second choice.

[X.]

My bad. I meant "Selector Label" 🙂 For my defense, I had one word correct...

Anyhow, that's not even an irritating behavior.

It's like a bare model car with all the buttons but no action. Since I am using the top-of-the-line version of LV (PDS), I was expecting to have all the bells and whistles toll and whistle...

[KatieC · Accepted solution]

Thank you for bringing this issue to light for us! I have filed a CAR (#321026) and our R&D team will take care of fixing it for a later version of LabVIEW. 

Katie

[carlos_camargo]

I see, what is the text of the CAR?  I'm really very interested in this as well.  Is the CAR's intent to get rid of the ellipses and replace them with a full list?  If I am not wrong, this was the default behavior in older versions of LabVIEW.  Why was the decision made to take information away from the programmer?