selection of connector pane and program speed

[TeaAndBiscuits]

Does using more complex connecto pane (for a given number of inputs and outputs) make the program slower?

[tst]

It shouldn't make the program run slower (and if it does, it's negligible), since the computer doesn't think of them as "more complex", but if you're passing a large data structure, you could be creating a copy of the data and that will cause the program to run slower.
Have you run into any specific problem or do you ask in general?

[Dennis_Knutson]

Probably by some fraction. Passing two scalars versus one, however, might not be a time difference you can measure. And, if your subVI requires x number of parameters, what's the alternative? Passing via the connector pane is certainly faster than passing via a global variable. Using a subVI instead of having all of your code in the main VI adds a little bit of overhead as well but I'm not sure it's something you'd ever notice. Are you seeing some issue with a subVI?

[TeaAndBiscuits]

Hello Dennis, Hi TST
Thanks to both for useful info.

TST you are saying I may be creating a copy in memory when I pass a huge cluster to subVI. But doesn’t that copy get deleted when that subVI is done and control is back to mainVI ? (like local variables in a ‘C’ functioncall) ?

Thanks

[LV_Pro]

LabVIEW is pretty good about memory management, the problem becomes the time required to allocate space for the copy, particularly as the size of the data grows large. What are you trying to do that causes you to be concerned about the type of the connector pane? If you have a lot of inputs it is a lot faster to have the individual connections rather than trying to bundle data together (cluster) to use fewer connections.

P.M.

[TeaAndBiscuits]

Hi Guys.
This project has huge clusters, and almost all connections on the connector panes are used.
So if everytime it’s going to create copies of data types when it goes in subVI, I am OK as long as it deletes that all copies when it is done with that subVI. (All such subVIs get called in a (supposed to be endless) while loop)

So far the project is running well.
I have been curious about these things.

thanks
Sandeep

[altenbach]

Since you say "for a given number of inputs", I interpret the question as follows:

You have a subVI with e.g. two inputs and one output. Is it computationally more expensive to use a connector pane with more connectors than actually needed? I don't think so!
It is actually recommended to keep a few "spare" terminals handy, especially if you plan to improve the VI later. 🙂

About the other memory questions that came up later: Also have a look at this recent thread.

[TeaAndBiscuits]

Thanks, People.

regards
Sandeep