Show array dimensions in Probe Watch Window

[Steimers]

My idea is about the representation of arrays in the "Probe Watch Window". At the moment you only can scroll through the values of a array/multidimensional array if you have a Probe on a array wire. If I want to know the dimension of the array I have to scroll through the whole array until a value is grayed. Because of that it's easier to build in a "Array Size.vi" to find out if my arrays have the right dimensions but it would be more comfortable if I could see it already in the Probe Watch Window at the Probe Display

.

In summary it would be very helpful if I could see the dimensions of a array at once in the Probe Watch Window.

[Mads]

This is already covered in this idea, but kudos anyway

[Christina_R]

Questions: 1) Instead of scrolling, why can't you just right-click on the array index and Show Last Element? 2) Why can't you make a custom probe that shows you the array information you want to see?

I think this is exactly what the Custom Probe feature was intended to address.

[Steimers]

Hi Christina,

1) Thats's possible but means a lot of clicks when dealing with many multidimensional arrays and conflicts with the idea of a simple probe where you want to see all important pieces of information at once.

2) Also possible but if you have to work on many workstations at different places this means that you have to carry your custom probe with you all the time (for example on a USB Stick). Again a solution that seems not very feasible for me.

All in all I really think that it would be a nice progress if the standard probe would show the array dimensions at once because this is one of the most important information when dealing with multidimensional arrays. In the case of debugging in the first step often more important as the values in these arrays.

[Christina_R]

I can see the value in your request. However, I'm going to reiterate what Stephen said in the other thread.

In any case where you want changes to probes, I suggestion that you:

1. Make the custom probe.
2. Post it on NI's forums, and state that you yield your intellectual property rights so that we can ship it.
3. Ask community members to comment if they think it's better than the current default probe for the data type.

If we agree that it's a better probe, we'll ship it in vi.lib\_probes\default and it'll become the new default probe for the data type. If not, we can still ship it in vi.lib\probes so that it's available in the Custom probe pull-right.

Creating the probe will make a much stronger argument than describing the probe.

[G-Money]

http://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW-Idea-Exchange/Make-the-default-probes-smarter/idi-p/937728