Understand how to view data references
- Last UpdatedDec 13, 2024
- 2 minute read
- PI System
- PI Server 2024 R2
- PI Server
If a worksheet contains an attribute column and the attribute in that column has a data reference, then the cell content depends on whether you select the Show Values in Columns check box:
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If you select the Show Values in Columns check box, the attribute cell contains a value from the data reference at the specified time. Note that PI Builder does not publish values for attributes with data references.
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If you do not select the Show Values in Columns check box, the attribute cell contains a string that contains a data-reference name followed by the attribute configuration string (see Learn about attribute configuration strings).
A data-reference name indicates the type of data reference.
The following table lists different types of data references, the corresponding data-reference name, and an example of a value that might appear in a cell.
|
Data-reference type |
Data-reference name |
Example |
|---|---|---|
|
Formula |
=Formula. |
=Formula.D=Density;V=Volume;[D*V] =Formula.A=Attribute3;[A*3];UOM=cm |
|
PI Point1 (server specified in configuration string) |
= |
=\\MyDataServer\sinusoid |
|
PI Point1 (server not specified in configuration string) |
=PI Point. |
=PI Point.MyPITag |
|
PI Point Array |
=PI Point Array. |
=PI Point Array.\\MyDataServer\Point.1|Point.2|Point.3 |
|
String Builder |
=String Builder. |
=String Builder."%Attribute% value is";'Density'; |
|
Table Lookup |
=Table Lookup. |
=Table Lookup.SELECT Density FROM [Material Specifications] WHERE MaterialID = @Product |
|
URI Builder |
=URI Builder. |
Generic web link: https://www.MappingService.com:443/maps/dir/%%27%%27/'Street Address','City','State''Zip Code' |
|
1If you are using the PI point data reference and the configuration string starts with double backslashes to indicate that the Data Archive server is next, then you can omit the PI Point. prefix. |
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The separator character between the data-reference name and the configuration string is a period (.). In earlier versions of PI AF, the separator character was a colon (:). Both the new and legacy separator characters are supported for publishing from Excel into PI AF, but retrieving data from PI AF into Excel returns the new separator character.
Note: If you have custom data-reference types and the data-reference name itself contains either a period (.) or a colon (:), then you must enclose the data-reference name in single quotes. For example, if the custom data-reference name is FormulaV.1, then you would need to specify the following combination of data reference and configuration string:
'='FormulaV.1'.Configuration_String