# Associated data ref. within exp. prop. binding return null

**URL:** <https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/associated-data-ref-within-exp-prop-binding-return-null/8927>\
**Category:** Ignition\
**Created:** [August 20, 2014, 11:03am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/associated-data-ref-within-exp-prop-binding-return-null/8927 "2014-08-20T11:03:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 8\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mik977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f8ce5/32.png) [@mik977](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/mik977)\
**Post date:** [August 20, 2014, 11:03am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/associated-data-ref-within-exp-prop-binding-return-null/8927/1 "2014-08-20T11:03:23Z")

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I am trying to do the following:

- add an alarm to a tag
- add a few associated data properties like “MyCustom1”
- reference these properties in an expression binding on ‘Display path’ property

I can access all standard properties such as:

{Value}, {notes}, …

but not

{MyCustom1}

I get null as result.

Using Ignition 7.7

Is this a bug?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mik977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f8ce5/32.png) [@mik977](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/mik977)\
**Post date:** [August 22, 2014, 11:08am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/associated-data-ref-within-exp-prop-binding-return-null/8927/2 "2014-08-22T11:08:29Z")

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Can anyone confirm this is a bug, or am I doing something wrong?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![KathyApplebaum](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/kathyapplebaum/32/7261_2.png) [@KathyApplebaum](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/KathyApplebaum)\
**Post date:** [August 22, 2014, 3:21pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/associated-data-ref-within-exp-prop-binding-return-null/8927/3 "2014-08-22T15:21:15Z")

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Can you post a screen shot of how you set up your custom prop and how you are doing the referencing?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mik977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f8ce5/32.png) [@mik977](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/mik977)\
**Post date:** [August 26, 2014, 3:53am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/associated-data-ref-within-exp-prop-binding-return-null/8927/4 "2014-08-26T03:53:45Z")

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1. dump: associated data
2. dump: display path expression  
 ![](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/2X/6/688d9d128a9e0d165d4cf9e2707bdf41ee938ee5.PNG)  
  
 ![](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/2X/6/6fe5ec1fde6dc76c9214f0a5c651032a141ac44c.PNG)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mik977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f8ce5/32.png) [@mik977](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/mik977)\
**Post date:** [September 1, 2014, 5:29pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/associated-data-ref-within-exp-prop-binding-return-null/8927/5 "2014-09-01T17:29:36Z")

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Hi, I will need this feature for alarm journal customization, and possibly event journalling…

Have I bumped into a bug or am I doing something wrong?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Chris\_Taylor](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/chris_taylor/32/3315_2.png) [@Chris\_Taylor](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Chris_Taylor)\
**Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 9:10am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/associated-data-ref-within-exp-prop-binding-return-null/8927/6 "2014-09-02T09:10:44Z")

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Hi Mik977

I can repeat this, it looks like the display path expression returns a Null when evaluating associated data, you could overcome this by placing your text as either fixed such as this

```auto
concat("hello", " - ",switch({Value},0,1,2,’Zero’,’One’,’Two’,"???"))
```

or by using string tags

```auto
concat("hello", " - ",switch({Value},0,1,2,{[.]Text/Zero},{[.]Text/One},{[.]Text/Two},"???"))
```

and place your text in the tags.

Chris

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mik977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f8ce5/32.png) [@mik977](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/mik977)\
**Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 9:26am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/associated-data-ref-within-exp-prop-binding-return-null/8927/7 "2014-09-02T09:26:25Z")

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OK, thank you for the workarounds…

So it’s a bug.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Chris\_Taylor](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/chris_taylor/32/3315_2.png) [@Chris\_Taylor](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Chris_Taylor)\
**Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 1:15pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/associated-data-ref-within-exp-prop-binding-return-null/8927/8 "2014-09-02T13:15:36Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> So it's a bug.

Prehaps

it could be a feature 😃