Troubleshooting Property Expressions

Error text for the expression field

Expression example

Possible errors

Solution

The expression is not complete.

or

The expression is empty.

or

The expression cannot be evaluated.

${MyProperty}

When a property is inserted to an expression using double-click or by clicking on the Insert Properties button, it is inserted as text.

With this syntax, Spotfire will try to interpret a string property value as a column name or a part of an expression rather than as a value.

If you want to use the value of the string property, put quotation marks around the expression:

"${MyProperty}"

You can also right-click on the property in the Available properties for column list and select Insert as Value from the pop-up menu instead :

DocumentProperty("MyProperty")

If the property is supposed to hold a column name, but the column name contains space characters, you need to put "[" and "]" characters around the property expression. You can also use the $esc() function that both escapes any "]" characters and converts the property string to a column:

$esc(${MyProperty})

If the property is added using Set from Property, you will automatically get the escaped version of the expression.

The expression is not complete.

Concatenate("My first string", ${EmptyProperty})

If a string property inserted as text is empty then it cannot be interpreted as a column and Spotfire will not see that the second argument in this example is there at all.

If you want to use the value of the string property, put quotation marks around the expression:

Concatenate("My first string", "${EmptyProperty}")

You can also right-click on the property in the Available properties for column list and select Insert as Value from the pop-up menu instead :

Concatenate("My first string", DocumentProperty("EmptyProperty"))

If you want to use the content of a column in the concatenation, you should put '[' and ']' characters around the property to make sure the property is interpreted as a column (or use $esc() as described above).

Concatenate("My first string", [${EmptyProperty}])

Invalid type for function call 'DocumentProperty'

DocumentProperty(MyProperty)

The property name should always be written within quotation marks when property functions are applied. Quotation marks are automatically added if you use the Insert as Value shortcut from the pop-up menu.

Put quotation marks around the property name:

DocumentProperty("MyProperty")

Expected 'End of expression' but found ',' on line 1 character 12

or

The expression is not valid

$map("sum([${MyListProperty}])", ",")

When list-valued properties are used on an axis you need to map the list-valued properties to a single string. The expression must contain a template to use for each value in the list (e.g., an aggregation measure) and also a specification of how the list values should be connected in the resulting expression.

The default expression obtained when first inserting the property is suitable for continuous axes where a simple listing of the columns included in the list-valued property is desired. In all other cases it must be manually modified.

Depending on what you want to display you need to modify the default expression somewhat differently.

If a simple listing of column names is desired (e.g., if you want to show multiple columns on a bar chart value axis), then the expression in the example works fine. If you want to use an aggregation measure other than "sum" simply replace "sum" in the expression.

If the list of columns is to be shown on a categorical axis, you need to modify the default expression to something like this:

<$map("[${MyListProperty}]", "NEST")>

Categorical expressions must be surrounded by angle brackets, "<>", and you must also specify how different combinations of categories should be handled.

Also, the current selection of columns in the list-valued property may be a mixture of continuous and categorical columns. Make sure that only columns of the same type are included in the property list.

There are also more cases where the expression needs to be modified. See the section List-Valued Properties (Multiple Select) under Properties in Expressions for more information.

Expected ':' but found '3' on line 1 character 5

${TimeSpanProperty}

If you try to use a TimeSpan, Date, Time or DateTime property in an expression, the expression language will not be able to interpret it correctly without some manual editing.

First, it needs quotation marks around the property name. This will interpret the property as a string and you will be able to get rid of the error. Second, you need to use one of the conversion functions in order to actually interpret the value as a TimeSpan, Date, Time or DateTime.

Put quotation marks around the property name and use the corresponding conversion function:

TimeSpan("${TimeSpanProperty}")

You can also right-click on the property in the Available properties for column list and select Insert as Value from the pop-up menu instead :

TimeSpan(DocumentProperty("TimeSpanProperty"))

{Table is undefined in ${{Table}

${{Table}}.{MyProperty}

If a name contains right curly bracket (}) it needs to be escaped by a backslash character (\).

To access the data table property MyProperty in a data table that is named "{Table}" one must write ${{Table\}}.{MyProperty}.