National Instruments BridgeVIEW Arrays, Clusters, and Graphs

Arrays, Clusters, and Graphs

This chapter introduces the basic concepts of polymorphism, arrays,

clusters, and graphs and provides activities that explain auto-indexing and

the Graph and Analysis VIs.

An array is a collection of data elements that are all the same type. An array

has one or more dimensions and up to 231 – 1 elements per dimension,

memory permitting. You access each array element through its index. The

index is in the range 0 to n – 1, where n is the number of elements in the

array. The following 1D array of numeric values illustrates this structure.

Notice that the first element has index 0, the second element has index 1,

and so on.

If you need an array as a source of data in your block diagram, you can

choose Functions»Array and then select and place the array shell on your

block diagram. Using the Operating tool, you can choose a numeric

constant, Boolean constant, or string constant to place inside the empty

array. The following illustration shows an example array shell with a

numeric constant inserted into the array shell.

To create an array on the front panel, select Array & Cluster from the

Controls palette and place the array shell on your front panel. Then select

an object (numeric, for example) and place that inside the array shell. This

creates an array of numerics.

10-element array 1.2 3.2 8.2 8.0 4.8 5.1 6.0 1.0 2.5 1.7

0123456789

index