How is variable type assigned to variables?

EvanReese

If I set a length variable with the Variable feature and look at it in the variable table, it show's the "variable type" as "length", but if I set the same value with setVariable() in FS, it shows as "Unspecified". How do I make it show "length" etc?

_anton

The standard variable feature has some special handling because we know how it's structured and what value field to show for each type (if you look at the source code, you'll see that length/angle/etc. have different fields in the precondition). With custom features, all bets are off about feature structure, so we just show the value with no type instead of trying to be too clever.

_anton

Depends on what you're trying to do, but yeah, I wouldn't anticipate any more interactivity with the table. Normally, custom feature rows are entirely read-only; the only special allowance we give is a name field with UIHint.VARIABLE_NAME, in which case you can rename. But the type is hardwired to only work with the standard feature.

_anton

The standard variable feature has some special handling because we know how it's structured and what value field to show for each type (if you look at the source code, you'll see that length/angle/etc. have different fields in the precondition). With custom features, all bets are off about feature structure, so we just show the value with no type instead of trying to be too clever.

EvanReese

_anton said:

The standard variable feature has some special handling because we know how it's structured and what value field to show for each type (if you look at the source code, you'll see that length/angle/etc. have different fields in the precondition). With custom features, all bets are off about feature structure, so we just show the value with no type instead of trying to be too clever.

Thanks, Anton. So should I be taking from this that it's not worth trying to do it in a custom feature?

_anton

Depends on what you're trying to do, but yeah, I wouldn't anticipate any more interactivity with the table. Normally, custom feature rows are entirely read-only; the only special allowance we give is a name field with UIHint.VARIABLE_NAME, in which case you can rename. But the type is hardwired to only work with the standard feature.