Knowledge Base

The message:

Depexpr.dat, line 1: expression ignored

sometimes appears in the Event Viewer, without explanation.

It usually appears when an alarm variable has a space or a ‘0’ in a field for Branch or for Expression Template in the section ‘Data in relation with expression masked alarm’.

The file VAREXP.DAT defines the variables in a project. When it is changed with an external tool such as Microsoft Excel, sometimes (e.g. during copying) that replaces an empty field automatically with a null string or with one ‘0’ (zero) character.

Solution

To modify VAREXP.DAT using Excel without loss of data integrity:

1. Create a backup copy of VAREXP.DAT in the C folder of the project.
2. In Excel, select File.Open to display the Open dialog.
3. In the Look In box, select the C folder of the project.
4. In the Files of Type box, select All Files.
5. Double click on the file VAREXP.DAT to open the Text Import Wizard dialog at Step 1.
6. Set the property File Origin to ‘MS DOS(PC8)’.

1. Click on the Next button to open Step 2. Keep the Text Qualifier property at the standard setting of one double-quote mark.

8. Click on the Next button to open Step 2, then on Finish to close the dialog and open VAREXP.DAT.
9. When you have made any changes, save the file in its original format of comma-separated variable (CSV) and with its original name (VAREXP.DAT).

Further information

In the main Help for PcVue, the topic Masking an Alarm with an Expression describes how to use an expression template.