Alter Values

Alter Values

Alter Values provides an automatic way to enter or clear the values of a variable in selected Parametric Tables. This capability can be accessed for one table by left-clicking on the triangular icon in the upper right corner of the table header cell or by right-clicking in the column header cell and selecting Alter Values from the pop-up menu that appears. Either method will bring up the Change Table Column Values dialog, which provides the capability to enter patterns of values, in addition to the capabilities provided by the Alter Values menu command. Of course, it is also possible to simply type (or delete) the values directly into a Parametric table. The major difference between the Alter Values menu command and these alternative methods of altering the values in a table is that the Alter Values menu command allows the changes to be made to multiple selected tables simultaneously.

The Alter Values dialog that appears after selecting the Alter Values command from the Tables menu is shown in the figure on the left. When there is more than one Parametric table, the Alter Values command initially shows data for the Parametric table that is foremost. If there is more than one Parametric Table, clicking on the table name will allow other Parametric tables to be chosen. It is possible to have the Alter Values dialog operate on more than one table. To do so, click on the table name or the down arrow at the right of the table name. The list of available Parametric tables will be displayed, as shown in the figure on the right. Hold the Shift key down while clicking on the table names in this dropdown list to select or unselect the tables for which the changes will be applied. If a selected table does not contain the selected variable (shown in the list at the left of the Alter Values dialog), that table will be skipped.

The Professional license will accept an value for the Last Run field which is greater than the number of rows in the table. In this situation, the number of rows in the table will, after confirmation, be increased to the specified value.

The Professional license will accept EES variables that have been set to fixed values in place of numerical values for the First Value and Increment/Last Value fields.

The variable for which changes are to be made is selected from the list by clicking on its name or by using the up/down arrow keys. The runs (i.e., rows) affected are specified at the upper left of the dialog window and the name of the Parametric table is shown at the upper right. The column in the Parametric Table for this variable will be cleared if the Clear Values radio button is selected. If Set Values is selected, values for the selected variable will be entered automatically in the table starting with the value in the First Value input box. Successive values in the table will be generated using one of the following choices depending on the setting of the list box just below First Value.

Last (linear) - an increment such that the last value is as specified

Increment - the specified fixed increment

Multiplier - the specified fixed multiplier

Last (log) - a multiplier such that the last values is as specified

Only Increment is provided for Date variables or Time variables.

The OK button will insert the specified values into the selected Parametric Table(s) and then exit the Alter Table dialog. The Apply button will also insert the specified values into the Parametric Table(s), but control will remain in the Alter Values dialog window so other changes can be made. The Cancel button will return the Parametric table to the same state it was in before the Alter Values command was issued.

The numerical values entered in a table, either from the keyboard or through the Alter Values command, identify independent variables in the equation set; they are shown in a font style/color that distinguishes them from the dependent variables calculated by EES. The style/color for dependent and independent values can be chosen in the Preferences dialog. Independent variables are fixed to a constant for each run, just as if there were an equation in the Equations Window setting the variable to the constant. Dependent variables are automatically entered in the table with the Solve Table or Min/Max Table commands. If a value is set in a table, it should not also be set in the Equations window; otherwise an error message will be displayed indicating that the problem has been over specified. The $IFNOT ParametricTable directive can be used to have the value be defined when the Parametric table is not used.