# Clear / Reset / Initialize UDTs in Script **URL:** \ **Category:** General Discussion\ **Created:** [February 28, 2014, 11:27pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/clear-reset-initialize-udts-in-script/8084 "2014-02-28T23:27:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![RMAC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7ea924/32.png) [@RMAC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/RMAC)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2014, 11:27pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/clear-reset-initialize-udts-in-script/8084/1 "2014-02-28T23:27:00Z")
Does anyone know how to clear or reset memory tag UDTs to default in Python? I would also be happy copying a blank UDT into the UDT I am tying to clear. I’m trying to clear out a recipe UDT before populating it from a DB transaction that may be incomplete or may not contain all the recipe steps. Ignition does not seem to be happy with system.tag.write() with a UDT. I need a system.UDT.write() or equivilent. Here is what I have tried y = system.tag.read(“BlankUDT”) system.tag.write(“UDTToClear”,y) I’m hoping not to have to blow it out into a dataset and reassemble if possible. This is a recipe editor located all in Ignition memory UDTs and DB so I can not clear it at the PLC level. ---
**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:** [March 3, 2014, 3:40pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/clear-reset-initialize-udts-in-script/8084/2 "2014-03-03T15:40:22Z")
I’m not having any trouble writing to a memory tag that’s part of a UDT. Here’s what I did. I have a UDT that contains a memory tag named “Memory\_tag\_int”. That memory tag is data type int4, is enabled, and has read/write access rights. I made an instance of that UDT, called mem\_instance. Note that if I try to write just to mem\_instance, I get an error. This is because your UDT instance could contain lots of tags, and Ignition wouldn’t have a clue which one you meant to write to. Instead, I have to write to the memory tag contained inside mem\_instance. The following script will increment that tag by 1 every time it’s clicked.`temp = system.tag.read("mem_instance/Memory_tag_int") system.tag.write("mem_instance/Memory_tag_int", temp.value+1)`Remember, since read returns a qualified value, you need to get the value member from the object read returns. If you try to use just ‘temp+1’, you’ll also get an error. ---
**Author:** ![RMAC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7ea924/32.png) [@RMAC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/RMAC)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2014, 8:35pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/clear-reset-initialize-udts-in-script/8084/3 "2014-03-03T20:35:40Z")
I’m not trying to write to a single element of a UDT. I’m trying to ethier initialize an entire UDT to its defaults or write a already blanked out UDT into the UDT I’m trying to clear. The UDT I’m trying to clear contains around 600 elements with multiple sub UDTs. ---
**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:** [March 3, 2014, 9:17pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/clear-reset-initialize-udts-in-script/8084/4 "2014-03-03T21:17:07Z")
Ah, much clearer now. Would removing the tag and adding a new instance with the same name work for you? If so, the new system.tag scripting functions in the free [IALabs Scripting Module](http://marketplace.inductiveautomation.com/moduledetail?4&moduleId=46) might work for you. These functions will be built in Ignition 7.7 as standard functions. ---
**Author:** ![RMAC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7ea924/32.png) [@RMAC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/RMAC)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2014, 5:00pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/clear-reset-initialize-udts-in-script/8084/5 "2014-03-04T17:00:11Z")
Thanks Kathy, it works great. Here is my implementation: # Clear steps in editor system.tag.removeTag(“Compression/Recipe Edit/Recipe”) system.tag.addTag(parentPath=“Compression/Recipe Edit”, name=“Recipe”, tagType=“UDT\_INST” attributes={“UDTParentType”:“CompressionRecipeEdit”}) I’m not sure I would want to use this technique on a tag that was looked at asynchronously such as trending or OPC to prevent errors. Is there any plans to add capability to copy entire UDTs (UDTa = UDTb) as well as subsets (UDTa/Step15 = UDT\_Step)? Initializing a UDT could also be handy but could be worked around by copying a blank UDT into the one to be cleared. I see this functionality giving Ignition significant more power in data manipulation. ---
**Author:** ![RMAC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7ea924/32.png) [@RMAC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/RMAC)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2014, 5:08pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/clear-reset-initialize-udts-in-script/8084/6 "2014-03-04T17:08:35Z")
One more hint for others installing IA Labs Scripting Module: When you download the module it may come as a ZIP file. If so, rename it from IA Labs Scripting-module.zip to IA Labs Scripting-module.modl so Ignition can import it. This is not in the instructions and could stump some of you. ---
**Author:** ![lstanczyk](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/lstanczyk/32/24686_2.png) [@lstanczyk](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/lstanczyk)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2023, 5:42pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/clear-reset-initialize-udts-in-script/8084/7 "2023-07-12T17:42:15Z")
Here is what I used to loop through all properties and set them to default values: ```auto slotTags = system.tag.browseTags(, tagPath=, recursive=True, sort="ASC") for slotTag in slotTags: childrenTags = system.tag.browseTags(slotTag.fullPath, tagPath="*", recursive=True, sort="ASC") floatChildren = filter(lambda t: str(t.dataType)=="Float4",childrenTags) boolChildren = filter(lambda t: str(t.dataType)=="Boolean",childrenTags) stringChildren = filter(lambda t: str(t.dataType)=="String",childrenTags) integerChildren = filter(lambda t: str(t.dataType)=="Int4",childrenTags) system.tag.writeBlocking([t.fullPath for t in stringChildren], list([""] * len(stringChildren))) system.tag.writeBlocking([t.fullPath for t in boolChildren], list([False] * len(boolChildren))) system.tag.writeBlocking([t.fullPath for t in floatChildren], list([0.0] * len(floatChildren))) system.tag.writeBlocking([t.fullPath for t in integerChildren], list([0] * len(integerChildren))) ``` ---
**Author:** ![paul-griffith](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/paul-griffith/32/37249_2.png) [@paul-griffith](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/paul-griffith)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2023, 5:52pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/clear-reset-initialize-udts-in-script/8084/8 "2023-07-12T17:52:20Z")
You can make that a lot easier using TypeUtilities, see this post: > [@Browse tags printing folder](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/browse-tags-printing-folder/60498/20): > > from com.inductiveautomation.ignition.common import TypeUtilities # Grabs current Date and Time getDateTime = system.date.now() # Returns current hour in a 0-23 format getHour = system.date.getHour24(getDateTime) # Creates list to store tag paths paths = [] # Checks if time is Midnight if getHour == 7: # Gets all tags in folder sub structure and writes to an array tags = system.tag.browseTags(parentPath="folder", recursive = True) for tag in tags: if not tag.isFolder(): …