"-" character in enum not allowed?

Question

Hello,
If I create an enum with the following items:
"+", "-", "/" and "*", I cannot see the item "-" on the front panel as an option.
Is it a restricted character to use in enum type? Before you say, I know I can just use a Ring type, but I just would like to learn why I see this behaviour?
thanks!
EDIT: same behaviour for the Text Ring....
EDIT2: Menu Ring: also problem with "-"
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Answer 1

This is indeed one problem of several with the use of separators in such controls, but:
- If you must have multiple separators in a control, use a Text Ring. Head to Edit Items for the control, then untick Sequential values. You can reorder the items but keep their values in the order you want. For instance, you could have:
A 0
B 1
C 2
D 3
- 10
E 4
F 5
G 6
- 11
H 7
I 8
etc, and you'll end up with a drop down with multiple selectors. It's a little unwieldy though.
- If you want to iterate through a text ring like the one above, you could just limit the number of iterations to the last item before your separator values start, e.g. 9.
- Enums allow a lot more flexibility, as you can put things in in whatever order you wish and then select (e.g. cases in a case structure) by name, rather than by number. Much more readable, and you can deal with the separator selection with a default case (or specifically a hyphen case, in which you do nothing!). If you want to iterate through elements of the enum, create a 1D array of enum constants, selecting which entry to use at each iteration, then pass to an autoindexing for loop.
- Whatever you do, make sure you type def the control!
CLD