Text wave Issue

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Hello, I am trying to assign text from one wave to another, that is, I have a text wave, w1, and I am trying to assign its elements to another wave, w2, but I receive the error "a wave assignment error: "An attempt was made to treat a text wave as if it were a numeric wave."" I've tried a simplified version of what I am attempting to do: 

Function Example()

Variable i

Make/T/O w1= {"a","b","c"}
Make/T/O w2

For (i=0; i<numPnts(w1); i+=1)
					
	w2[i] = w1[i]
					
EndFor

End
And this work exactly how I would have expected it to. Any suggestions?
Hi, I ran your example as posted and it worked without issue. Created 2 text waves W1 of length 3 points and W2 of 128 with a,b, and c in the right spot. Tried on IP8. Can you supply the non-simplified code? Andy

June 27, 2018 at 06:47 am - Permalink
Yes, that example does work exactly how you would expect it to. I have a chunk of my code pasted below. It is just a snippet of the larger procedure I am working on but this section is essentially merging data, under three different conditions, inserting the data into different parts of an already existing waves. I am receiving the error for the line:

Stats_StatusFlag[FirstPoint + i] = Load_Stats_StatusFlag0[i]

These two waves are both text waves. Also, I am using Igor Pro 6.3.7.2.


		Wave EndTime, Stats_StatusFlag, Stats_Median_nm, Final_SMPS_Data
		
		
		For (i=0; i= Load_EndTime[0])
				
				FirstPoint = i														
				Break															
				
			EndIf		
				
		EndFor


		For (i=0; i Load_EndTime[i])								
			
				InsertPoints FirstPoint + i, 1, EndTime									
				EndTime[FirstPoint + i] = Load_EndTime[i]
				InsertPoints FirstPoint + i, 1, Stats_StatusFlag
				Stats_StatusFlag[FirstPoint + i] = Load_Stats_StatusFlag0[i]
				InsertPoints FirstPoint + i,1,Stats_Median_nm
				Stats_Median_nm[FirstPoint + i] = Load_Stats_Median_nm0[i]
				InsertPoints FirstPoint + i,1,Final_SMPS_Data
				
					For (j=0; j<54; j+=1)
					
						Final_SMPS_Data[FirstPoint + i][j] = Sorted_SMPS_Data[i][j]
					
					EndFor
				
			ElseIF (EndTime[FirstPoint + i] == Load_EndTime[i])
			
						
				If (V_Flag == 0)
				
					DoAlert /T="Data Already Loaded",1,"Data already loaded for this time period, would you like to overwrite the current data?"
								
				ElseIf (V_Flag ==1)
			
					EndTime[FirstPoint + i] = Load_EndTime[i]							
					Stats_StatusFlag[FirstPoint + i] = Load_Stats_StatusFlag0[i]
					Stats_Median_nm[FirstPoint + i] = Load_Stats_Median_nm0[i]
				
					For (j=0; j<54; j+=1)
					
						Final_SMPS_Data[FirstPoint + i][j] = Sorted_SMPS_Data[i][j]
					
					EndFor
					
							
				EndIf
			
			Else
			
				For (i=0; i

June 27, 2018 at 07:01 am - Permalink
If you create a wave reference pointing to a text wave, you need to use the /T flag so that the Igor compiler knows it is a text wave. For example: 

Function Test()
	// Make with a simple name - Creates an automatic wave reference named textwave0
	Make/O/T textwave0
	Wave/T textwave0	// This is redundant - Make already creates the wave reference

	// Make without a simple name - no automatic wave reference is created
	String name = "textwave1"
	Make/O/T/N=3 $name = "Hello"
	Wave/T tw1 = $name 		// This is required because no automatic wave reference is created

	// Reference to a text wave named textwave2 that is assumed to already exist in the current data folder
	Wave/T tw2 = textwave2
End
I recommend rereading this section of the help. It takes both experimentation and rereading before if all sinks in. 

DisplayHelpTopic "Wave References"

June 27, 2018 at 07:14 am - Permalink
Ahh, ok, haven't had much experience with text waves, works perfectly now. Much appreciated.

June 27, 2018 at 07:29 am - Permalink