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Warning: The parameter to the variable was invalid

Description

A number of built-in variables in ANY-maze procedures require an extra value or 'parameter' to be specified. For example, the Distance from zone variable requires the zone to be specified, and the Duration of sequence variable requires the sequence to be specified.

Usually, you'll specify this parameter by simply selecting it from a drop-down list on the item itself, but there will be occasions when you wish to use the result of another expression to specify the parameter.

For example, the following section of a procedure uses a user-defined variable, rather than the zone directly, to specify the parameter to the Animal is in zone variable:

Figure 1. This procedure actually uses a user-defined variable called 'Current stimulus zone' as the parameter to the Animal is in zone built-in variable, rather than using a zone directly. The variable must previously have been assigned to a zone.

For the example in figure 1 to work, the 'Current stimulus zone' variable must previously have been assigned to something that ANY-maze can interpret as a zone. This could be the zone itself, or alternatively, some text that is the name of the zone. Either way, ANY-maze knows that a zone is required and will attempt to evaluate this as the name of a zone. If it can't, then this warning will be generated.

More information

If this warning is generated, then the built-in variable will be evaluated as #N/A (if it's a numeric variable), False (if it's a True/False variable), or empty text (if it's a text variable). You can tell which type of variable it is by its shape - numeric variables are lozenge-shaped (with rounded ends), True/False variables have angled ends, and text variables are rectangular.

You can test whether a numeric expression in a procedure is equal to #N/A using the 'Is undefined' function, which is described under Other functions.

All available zones (and other items from the protocol list) are listed under the Variables tab of the procedure editor, under ANY-maze protocol items.

When the procedure editor is in 'Simple' mode, the Variables tab is not shown. You can switch the procedure editor between Simple view and Full view using the buttons on the ribbon bar.

See also:

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ANY-maze help topic T0546