Is there a way to use a text file or spreadsheet instead of the GUI to initialize variables in LabVIEW

[stdel]

Hello,

I am new to LabVIEW and have a question. Is there a way to completely skip the GUI altogether and just drive a LabVIEW program with a "settings" file/spreadsheet that initializes variables and such?

Thanks in advance!

[RavensFan]

Of course.   Search the forum or LabVIEW example finder for how to read either a text file or an Excel file.

Then you can use that data in your program.

[Bob_Schor · Accepted solution]

Did you notice the File I/O Palette on the Block Diagram?  In addition to text, "Delimited Spreadsheet" (.csv Text files), and otherwise-unformatted Text files, you can also find (on this Palette) functions to read/write XML files and Configuration (a.k.a. ".ini") files.  Finally, if you have the Report Generation Toolkit installed, you can read/write Excel (meaning .xlsx) files, but this shows up on a different ("Report Generation") Palette.

Bob Schor

[pjroland1121]

You can also use JSON files if you are familiar with those.  check out "JKI JSON" or "JSONText" on the VI Package Manager.

[Frozen]

There is also a full set of database connectivity tools

So to recap...

1) ini file
2) xml

3) json

4) csv

5) xls

6) database

Shall I go on?

[stdel]

Got it! Thanks everyone for the replies!