# Alarms and Datasets **URL:** \ **Category:** Ignition\ **Tags:** ignition81, perspective\ **Created:** [June 5, 2022, 8:31pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/alarms-and-datasets/60381 "2022-06-05T20:31:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Matthew\_Smith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7993a0/32.png) [@Matthew\_Smith](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Matthew_Smith)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2022, 8:31pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/alarms-and-datasets/60381/1 "2022-06-05T20:31:42Z")
Hello, I’m hoping this is an easy answer, but so far I haven’t found a solution. Is there a way I can get one dataset tag to generate multiple alarms based off one of the columns? For example: I would like two alarms generated based off the Active column (see table below). I would then like to use the other columns to set labels, priority, path, etc… ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/3/6/3674127e030ebaa63c151ea4f5c3fe009b8af5f0.png) Thanks in advance, Matt ---
**Author:** ![apalas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47774/32.png) [@apalas](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/apalas)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2022, 9:44pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/alarms-and-datasets/60381/2 "2022-06-07T21:44:13Z")
Hi Matthew, Dataset tags are not designed to use alarm configs unfortunately and it is stated in our [user manual](https://docs.inductiveautomation.com/display/DOC81/Tag+Data+Types#TagDataTypes-DatasetTags) You can however do something similar with array tags if that works for you. > **[Array and Dataset Tags - Understanding Tags](https://inductiveuniversity.com/video/array-and-dataset-tags/7.8?r=%2Fvideo%2Fsearch%2F?q=version&checked_topics=)** > > Array and Dataset Tags: Learn about the new tag data types introduced in version 7.8: arrays and datasets Learn more about Understanding Tags ---
**Author:** ![Matthew\_Smith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7993a0/32.png) [@Matthew\_Smith](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Matthew_Smith)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2022, 6:03pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/alarms-and-datasets/60381/3 "2022-06-10T18:03:49Z")
ok. Thanks for clarifying. I thought I was missing something… I was determined to use the dataset. The workaround is to create an alarm for each row in the dataset. Creating a tag import (json) file makes this process less cumbersome. I then created a custom script that cycles through each row, updating the oldest entry. This keeps the dataset at fixed size which guarantees each row has an alarm. Not the most efficient solution - but it works. Oh. I did notice a bug when viewing alarms. The literal tag binding was displayed – not the value. This bug went away when I disabled and re-enabled the alarm. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Mark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@D\_Mark](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/D_Mark)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2022, 2:33pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/alarms-and-datasets/60381/4 "2022-09-21T14:33:59Z")
Can you show a little bit of your code to do this? I’m new to ignition but one of the task I was given was to create alarms that match what are in the PLC, a possible 450. We were about to automatically grab the strings from the PLC into an array but now I need a way to make them alarms and find a way to trigger the alarm when they are active in the PLC. Thank you ---
**Author:** ![jlandwerlen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bc8723/32.png) [@jlandwerlen](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/jlandwerlen)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2022, 2:53pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/alarms-and-datasets/60381/5 "2022-09-21T14:53:26Z")
If you want to have a PLC string be used as an alarm message, then to me the easiest is create a tag for the string and then a separate tag for the alarm. You can then reference the string in the alarm tag. You can easily knock this out if you have a list of alarms defined already, for example, in an Excel file. You can read the Excel file and then create the tags in a script. Keep in mind that the alarm message will not update while the alarm is active.