MultiCharts: Trading Software for Automated Trading and Backtesting

Posted: **31 Jul 2021**

Hi,

regarding the subject, if I had the list of items below I could have saved myself a whole day working almost none stop trying to find a bug in one of my very complex 1 second bar chart scripts I had created from the exact same script running in the other charts I used (1 week, 1 day, 30 minute, 15 minute, 5 minute, 1 minute). There have been other times this list could have saved annoyance and debugging work as well.

Change LastBarOnChart to LastBarOnChart_s.

Change DateTime2ELTime(MouseClickDateTime) to DateTime2ELTime_s(MouseClickDateTime). Note: DateTime2ELTime is in the Help but DateTime2ELTime_s is not.

Change the built in function "TimeToMinutes" to "TimeToSeconds".
Change the built in function "MinutesToTime" to "SecondsToTime_s". Note: There is a built in function called "SecondsToTime" but it will truncate the seconds so do not use it.

Change time to time_s
Note:
If all the variables that get the value of Time_s are named such that they end with the word Time (example FutureTime) then change these to end with Time_s (example FutureTime_s). The reasons to do this is because it makes it easier to get all the associated commands mentioned below changed for both Time_s and FutureTime_s. Specifically you do one string search at the end for Time_s and you will find all the associated commands mentioned below.

Where ever the time command needs to be replace with the time_s command the associated command (Text_New, TL_new, etc) needs to be replaced with the _s version as well.
Where ever the value of time_s was moved to a work field you also need to change the associated commands (Text_New, TL_new, etc).

I think this covers it. If you have any other items please let us know.

Regards,
John

Posted: **31 Jul 2021**

Note that I have two simpler scripts that can run in both 1 minute bars and 1 second bars by testing the BarType variable that I set in a switch statement shown below that is inside the CurrentBar = 1 code.

Code: Select all

if CurrentBar = 1 then
        begin
  	switch bartype_ex
		begin
	 	{
			NumericSimple bartype_ex [of Data(*)] - returns MC adaptable symbol resolution info: 
			Tick = 1, // Tick 
			Volume = 8, 
			Second = 9, 
			Minute = 2, 
			Hour = 3, 
			Day = 4, 
			Week = 5, 
			Month = 6, 
			Year = 7, 
			Quarter = 10, 
			Points = 11, 
			Change = 12, 
			OrigPoints = 13, 
		}	 	
		case 1: {tick bars}
			BarType = "T";
		case 2: {minute bars}
			BarType = "M";
  		case 4: {daily bars}
			BarType = "D";
  		case 5: {weekly bars}
			BarType = "W";
		case 9: {second bars}
			BarType = "S";
    		Default:
			raiseruntimeerror("A_MY_StepScanner_Set_GV has invalid bartype_ex. Aborting.");
   		end; {switch MySide}
   	End; //if CurrentBar = 1 then

Posted: **31 Jul 2021**

Code: Select all

if CurrentBar = 1 then
        begin

You can also use the keyword ONCE.
It might save some processing cycles.

Because MultiCharts will re-evaluate the IF statement at every new tick to see if it meets the criteria.
While the ONCE statement is only evaluated once when you load the indicator into the chart. That section of the code will not be invoked again during the day.

Posted: **17 Aug 2021**

For anyone who may have (prior to 2021/August/17) copied the code from the first post of this thread you should copy it again since I made two significant updates on 2021/August/17.

MultiCharts: Trading Software for Automated Trading and Backtesting

Converting 1 minute bar scripts to 1 second bar scripts

Converting 1 minute bar scripts to 1 second bar scripts

Re: Converting 1 minute bar scripts to 1 second bar scripts

Re: Converting 1 minute bar scripts to 1 second bar scripts

Re: Converting 1 minute bar scripts to 1 second bar scripts