Unflatten data using only the output from flatten to string

Question

Using the Unflatten from String vi requires that you provide the type. This is not always possible - you may not know it (or you have a number to choose from). In a situation where the original data is flattened, then the Type String & Data string are clustered & flattened again, you have a common structure no matter what the source data. Unflattening will return the Type & Data strings of the original data, however I have seen no vi anywhere that either converts Type String to Type, or Unflattens data given only the Type & Data strings. How is either of these done?
Attachments:
Type_conversion.vi ‏48 KB

Answer 1

You are asking too much from LabVIEW or any compiler for that matter. When the the datatype is unknown or undefined at compile time, it can't change the code to adapt to the incoming data. That is the programmer's job to do this and provide code to detect the incoming datatype and branch to appropriate routine to handle each datatype after it has been cast to a known type.
The compiler has to know the datatype before generating the code. Can you imagine executing your diagram in debug mode and see the wire change type from one iteration to the other as the incoming data changes type? That's the programmer that knows what datatypes are to be expected.
The original poster suggested to bundle typestring and flat data: you essentialy have
a structure similar to a variant. If you want to use undefined datatype, you should use variants instead of flattened strings since it includes the datatype. See my presentation on OpenG.org http://openg.org/tiki/tiki-index.php?page=2003-05-06+Group+Meeting
to see how to manipulate variant data at run-time.
LabVIEW, C'est LabVIEW