Using the Connector Pane:DataType Variant Output

[McQuillan]

I want to get the data type and input parameter of the connected terminals of the connector pane.

Using the ConPane.DataType returns a variant containing all the data I want, but I do not know how to parse it to get the constituent parts.

From the front panel I can see that index 0 contains an array of U32s and that it's a recommended input. My question is, how do I extract this data?

I did try this approach (below) but it strips a lot of the data that I want. 

It's frustrating that I can see the data I want, but I cannot workout how to access it! 

[billko]

What version of LabVIEW?  LV 2015 (I think) and later have a whole palette devoted to this.

[McQuillan]

I was playing around with that pallet for a little while as I thought that's where the answer would lie, but I couldn't get anything meaningful out.

[Kyle97330 · Accepted solution]

If you run the Variant output of ConPane.DataType into "Get VI information" from the palette above, one of the outputs is an array of Variants, one each per terminal.  Run that through a FOR loop and inside the loop run each instance into the "Get type information" from the very same palette. 

That gives you an enum output which gives you the data type.  For data types like array, cluster, etc. where you need more information, run the variant through the appropriately named VI that extracts more information from them.

[McQuillan]

Cheers Kyle,

That's exactly what I ended up doing. It took me a little while to realise I needed that I needed the Get VI Information VI, but once I got that, the rest was quite straightforward.

[billko]

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@McQuillan wrote:

Cheers Kyle,

That's exactly what I ended up doing. It took me a little while to realise I needed that I needed the Get VI Information VI, but once I got that, the rest was quite straightforward.

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Give yourself a little more credit than that.  It's not that straightforward!

[McQuillan · Accepted solution]

Aha, nice of you to say!

I've uploaded a quick example just to help out anyone else struggling with the same thing. It's no way near exhaustive (for example, I didn't include recursive cluster or array checking).

It's always nice to get to grips with a new pallet set!