EFS Debug tool

[Guest]

As part of my own code development, I have put together a small efs which saves data. What I found nice about it is it can be used to trace the execution of an efs, thus the name (trace.efs).

/************************************************
Steve Hare © January 2004                          
Use and/or modify this code freely. If you redistribute it
please include this and/or any other comment blocks and a 
description of any changes you make.                      
*************************************************/
/*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The purpose of this efs is to record the data from an efs wherever you choose to place "trace()" .The data 
must be within the parenthesis.  Care should be taken, as too much data can be overwhelming.  Depending
on how your code is written, and how much branching is used, the order of the recorded information may vary.
Therefore, use spaces and labels to assist in helping understand where the data being recorded is from. The
recorded data is saved in the default formula output directory, change variable nStudy to match up with 
the name of your code
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*/



var tracedata = new Array();
var tracefile = "";
var nStudy = "sample";
var barcount = 0;
var nLastRawTime = 0;

function preMain() { 
        tracefile = new File("Trace "+nStudy+".txt");
        tracefile.open("wt+");tracefile.close();//opens and overwrites previous file
}

function main(){


    if (/* getValue("rawtime",0) != nLastRawTime || */ getBarState() == BARSTATE_NEWBAR) {//runs portion of code every bar     
        nLastRawTime = getValue("rawtime",0);
        barcount++;

        
        //example usage
        trace(barcount);//always record barcount first
        
        trace(open());
        
        trace("close:"+close());
        
        trace("put text or description of code");// need to describe where in program the data is being recorded
        
        trace("         long buy function");// use spaces to make identification of different sections of the code
        
        trace("step 37");
        
        trace();// blanks, or null values are not recorded
        
        trace("save");//this saves the data accumulated as a line in the file, put right before end of main
        
        return;
    }
}


function trace(data1){//routine that saves the data
    if(data1==null){return;}
    tracedata.push(data1);//adds datapoint to array
    if(data1 == "save"){//section saves data to a file
        tracedata.pop();//removes "save" from array
        tracefile.open("at+");tracefile.writeln(tracedata);tracefile.close();
        var i;
        var iend = tracedata.length;
        for (i=0;i<=iend;i++){tracedata.pop();}//removes all data from array
    }
} 

I am currently using this to troubleshoot my own code. I typically will add trace(); on the same line as the data I am recording. Put the variable in the parenthesis.

sto0=vMAofStoch1.getValue(MAStudy.MA);trace(sto0); 

When no longer required, you can remove the data from between the parenthesis, as this will no longer be recorded, and is not a significant performance hit.

I have uploaded this in my fileshare area

trace()

This efs is written to record all the data from the initial efs load and will continue in real time. Hopefully someone will find this useful.

[Guest]

For those interested, I just finished developing some code which required extensive debugging because of my unfamiliarity with some of the methods I used. Attached is the efs that I finally got right after this debugging.

This efs demonstrates the extensive use of the trace() function I discussed in the previous post. It is also in my fileshare area for those interested. The file generated which traces the efs steps is in the formula output directory and may be looked at with a text editor.