Attributes

(Up to Analytica Reference)

Attribute Reference

This section should provide details on all attributes, user-visible and internal, organized by type of attribute (not alphabetically). Much remains to be filled in.

Common user modifiable attributes

Class

The class of the object. User may change Class only to other compatible classes: A object of subclass Variable (Chance, Constant, Determ, Decision, Index, Objective, Variable) may be changed to another within that subclass. An object of Module subclass (Library, FiledLibrary, Model, Module, FiledModule, or Form) may be changed to another of that class. The class of a Function, Button, and system objects may not be changed. In Edit mode, in the Object view or Attribute panel, Class appears as a pulldown menu with available options, when there are other options.

Identifier

The unique identifier of the object. An identifier must start with a letter, and contain only letters, digits, or underscore, up to 20 characters.

Title

A brief identification of the the object. It usually appears in the diagram node, and in many other places in the user interface. A title can be up to XX characters, although it's usually best to limit it to about 50 characters. By default, the identifier is created from the first 20 characters of the title, substituting "_" for blank or any character that isn't a letter or digit.

Description

Text that documents the object. For a variable, it should describe what the quantity represents. For a function, it should describe what value it returns and what parameters it expects. If the definition is not simple, it should also explain briefly what definition is doing. It should also mention any exceptions, such as what it does if an input or parameter is outside the expected domain.

Units

The units of measurement of a variable, or value returned by a function. Usually best to use abbreviated units so it is not longer than about 10 characters.

Definition

The Analytica expression used to compute the value of a variable or function.

User-modifiable attributes of Functions

These are attributes of functions that are directly modifiable by users, in addition to those listed above as "Common".

Parameters

A list of the parameters, enclosed in parentheses, including parameter qualifiers. It is good practice to also list the parameters (without qualifiers) in the title, so users can immediately see what parameters it expects from the node.

Recursive

A boolean, with value 0 (default) or 1, specifying whether this function is recursive -- i.e., it may call itself in its definition, or call another function that calls it (mutually recursive). By default, it is not displayed. You need to set it to be displayed in the Attributes... dialog.

Editable Parameters of Modules

Author

The name(s) of the people who created this module. When you start a new model, it may automatically fill this in with the name of the owner of the computer, if registered with Windows.

Non-editable attributes of modules

Saveauthor

The name of the owner of the computer, if registered with Windows, on which this module was last saved from Analytica.

Date (Created)

The time and date on which the module was first created.

Savedate (Last Saved)

The time and date on which this model or separately filed module or library was last saved.

Fileinfo (File info)

The directory path and name of the file in which this model was read from or last saved.

Nondisplayed attributes of Module

Contains

A list of the objects in this module.

Diagstate

Computed user-visible attributes of variables and functions

Inputs

A list of variables and functions used in the definition, after definition has been parsed. Before parsing, it may contain variables and functions from which arrows were drawn.

Outputs

A list of variables and functions that use this object in their definitions.

Node attributes

These attributes contain information about the node depicting the object in a diagram.

Nodelocation

The location of the node center in its parent diagram, as x,y,1, where x and y are number of pixels rightwards and downwards from the top-left corner of the diagram. The "1" means what???

Nodesize

The size of the node, as x,y, where x and y are the half width and half height in pixels, i.e. the distance from node center to edges.

Nodefont

The node font family and size in points, e.g. Bodoni, 16. If empty, it uses the default font family and size set for the parent diagram module.

Nodecolor

The color for this node, as r,g,b, where each color is in the range 0 to ????. If empty, it uses the default color set for this object class.

Nodeinfo

Node style attributes (usually set in Set Node style... dialog, with a,b,c,d,e,??????.

Defaultsize

Attribute of module specifying the default size for new nodes, using the same format as Nodesize. If empty, it inherits the default size from parent module, or for Analytica initialization.

Window status

Diag

Non-editable attributes of objects

FixedDef

The parse-tree (DCODE) of the definition. It displays as the code, usually with extra parens.

UI State

Att_resultSlicerState

(new to 4.0)

Att_editSlicerState

(new to 4.0)

NodeFontColor

(new to 4.0)

Controls the font color of a node in a diagram. There is no user-interface mechanism to set this, changing the font color of a node must be done through typescript. The attribute consists of three comma-separated integers, encoding Red, Green, and Blue components, with each integer being in the range of 0 to 65535. For example, the following renders the Secured_Revenues variable node using green characters:

NodeFontColor Secured_Revenues : 0,65535,0

Graphing

xyExpr

Contains one external/exogenous value expression. Recognized by Analytica 3.1 an earlier, where the expression for the X value in an XY graph was stored.

Att_exogenousValue

(new to 4.0) Holds a list of external values for a result window, which can then be used as graphing dimensions. Analytica 4.0 allows more than one external value to be brought in for plotting against the primary result of a variable. This attribute holds a list of expressions -- most commonly, each expression consists of a single variable identifier.

The xyExpr may also contain one addition external expression. (The reason it is split across two attributes is for greater 3.1 interoperability).

Graphing Role Attributes

(new to 4.0)

These attributes are: Att_xRole, Att_yRole, Att_colorRole, Att_symbolRole, Att_symbolSizeRole, Att_originRole.

These attributes, in coordination with the reformVal attribute, define the current graphing pivot. The settings in these attributes are combined with the current chart type, dimensions present in the current value (or values), etc., and Analytica may adjust the pivot actually shown to create a consistent set of roles. Since the dimensionality of results can change in Analytica (as upstream dimensions or added or removed, the view type can be changed, or the number of elements in a dimension may change), the exact pivot used the previous time the graph was displayed may no longer be sensible. However, when possible, the roles defined in these attributes do become the roles used in the graph.

Each of these role attributes can hold values in several possible forms:

• Self: The keyword Self indicates that the main result fills the role.
• barOrigin: The attribute name barOrigin indicates that the expression found in the legacy barOrigin attribute fills the role.
• xyExpr: The attribute name indicates that the expression found in the xyExpr attribute fills the role.
• identifier : The identifier indicates that the index having this identifier fills the role.
• Sys_LocalIndex("name"): Syntax indicating that the local index having the indicated name is used.
• Sys_CoordIndex(value) : The slice of the main result corresponding to [CoordIndex=value] is used, where value is an element of the coordinate index.
• 0 : The numeric value zero indicates that the main result is used (same as Self).
• n > 0: A positive integer value indicates that an external value is used. Several exogenous values may be attached to the result view (see Att_exogenousValues and xyExpr attributes). These are numbered, with the xyExpr always being n=1 if present, and then the remaining continuing in order through those listed in Att_exogenousValues, and finally the legacy barOrigin attribute expression coming last.
• n < 0: A negative integer value identifies a coordinate index slice by position. The role uses the slice of the main result corresponding to [@CoordIndex=abs(n)].

Also barOrigin.

Tables

• TableCellDefault
• CorrespondenceMethod