Bars Since True

[nasdorq]

Hey guys,

Recently I inquired about the possibility of a "Bars Since True" looping function, where it reports the # of bars since a particular chart event, which I guess would be a timespan data type.  In case it wasn't on the todo list, I figured I would ask if there is a way to do it without the simplified looping function?  I have snippets from other loops, and in a previous thread the "Ago" was mentioned, but I can't seem to put it together.  One use would be to compare the recency of particular chart events, for example:

If Bars since "Outside bar (engulfing)" > Bars since "Inside bar"
{
SetColor(Color.Green);
}
 

 

[Mike Medved]

Well, the way to do this would be - have a state variable, let's call it Boom (as in "something happened"). Set it to 9999999 or something to begin with.

Any time an event happens (like "Outside bar (engulfing)") - set CurrentState.Boom to 0. If the event did NOT happen, do CurrentState.Boom++

This way you can check the CurrentState.Boom to see how far back the event happened.

[nasdorq]

Thanks Mike for the tip.  I put together most of it, but I'm not quite sure how to declare a state variable called Boom.  I googled but didn't find any good examples.  What I have is below:

public void MainCalculation()
{
//declare state variable Boom;
    if (High>High[1] && Low < Low[1])
    {
        CurrentState.Boom = 0;
    }
    else
    {
        CurrentState.Boom++;
    }
    if (CurrentState.Boom > 5)
    {
        SetColor(Color.Green);
    }
}

[Mike Medved]

There is an option in the ribbon menu to add State to the indicator.

That adds a bunch of code, including the CurrentState and a few state-initializing, saving and restoring functions.

You put the Boom into the PaintbarState definition:

 

/// <summary>
/// Holds paintbar state - fill with variables needed to be preserved for next paintbar calc
/// </summary>
private struct PaintbarState
{
   int Boom;  // <--- this is what you add
}

 

see https://www.medvedtrader.com/trader/WebHelp/state_keeping.htm

I really worked on that help file to make it as comprehensive as possible

[nasdorq]

I was getting an "inaccessible due to it's protection level" error, so I put "public" in front of "int Boom;" and it worked.  You suggested setting the state variable to 99999, which I'm not sure where to put, but it seems to work anyway.  Thanks again.  I posted the full code of my original example idea in case it helps anyone.

private void PaintbarInitialize()
{ }

private struct PaintbarState
{
     public int OutsideBar;
     public int InsideBar;
}

private PaintbarState CurrentState;
private PaintbarState SavedState;
private void PaintbarClearState()
{
    CurrentState = new PaintbarState();
}

private void PaintbarSaveState()
{
    SavedState = CurrentState;
}

private void PaintbarRestoreState()
{
    CurrentState = SavedState;
}

public void MainCalculation()
{

    if (High>High[1] && Low < Low[1])
    {
        CurrentState.OutsideBar = 0;
    }
    else
    {
        CurrentState.OutsideBar++;
    }
    if (High<High[1] && Low > Low[1])
    {
        CurrentState.InsideBar = 0;
    }
    else
    {
        CurrentState.InsideBar++;
    }

    if (CurrentState.OutsideBar < CurrentState.InsideBar)
    {
        SetColor(Color.Green);
    }
}

[Mike Medved]

You're right, I forgot the public part. And setting it to 999999 would be in PaintbarClearState - but it only affects the candles from the beginning of the chart to the first occurrence of your condition - basically if you don't set it that way, it will assume that the candle right before the beginning of the chart satisfied the condition.

 

As you can see, having C# available to program paintbars/scans is very versatile. Hope the help file clarified things.