Reading Time Stamp Information from a Text File onto an XY Graph

Updated Oct 17, 2022

Reported In

Software

  • LabVIEW

Issue Details

I am trying to read saved data from a text file onto a LabVIEW graph but I keep getting numeric values displayed. Why is this and how can I present my timestamps on my graph?

Solution

Once the data has been written to a file that is not a standard measurement format (.TDMS, .LVM) it loses the format that LabVIEW uses to process timestamp information. Since it is now saved in a different format LabVIEW cannot process the data as date and time information and will display the result of a string to numeric data conversion. 

If you want to display this information on a graph, you would need to do some string manipulation to get the data in the format you desire. 

Additional Information

If this data is being processed and generated in LabVIEW, it will save time and overhead to create figures at the time of collection rather than later. If your application requires this to be done post processing, consider saving your data as a .LVM file or a TDMS file.