# InstanceName Parameter of UDT Tag Containing UDT Instances not Populating Correctly

**URL:** <https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/instancename-parameter-of-udt-tag-containing-udt-instances-not-populating-correctly/37394>\
**Category:** Ignition\
**Tags:** ignition80\
**Created:** [August 5, 2020, 2:45am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/instancename-parameter-of-udt-tag-containing-udt-instances-not-populating-correctly/37394 "2020-08-05T02:45:41Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jacob.marcum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jacob.marcum](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/jacob.marcum)\
**Post date:** [August 5, 2020, 2:45am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/instancename-parameter-of-udt-tag-containing-udt-instances-not-populating-correctly/37394/1 "2020-08-05T02:45:41Z")

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I’m using Ignition version 8.0.14. I’ve created multiple UDT tags and placed instances of them within a parent UDT. When populating the InstanceName parameter of the parent UDT into a value of one of the UDT instance’s parameters, it doesn’t seem to be pulling the parent UDT’s instanceName, but instead the UDT instanceName (control in the case below). Is this a bug, it doesn’t act the same as in 7.9 and doesn’t seem to be the intended result.

![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/a/8/a810df9d62c361706d49062c9a3628ac3b2c03ec.png)

![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/7/9/79745c79fae1ff277678456f1bfb60a2292c7f84.png)

![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/0/1/01b6ae381cb8a1bb621eb5e6683d12bb9aad6897.png)

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**Author:** ![James.Lorenz](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/james.lorenz/32/3290_2.png) [@James.Lorenz](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/James.Lorenz)\
**Post date:** [August 5, 2020, 6:44pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/instancename-parameter-of-udt-tag-containing-udt-instances-not-populating-correctly/37394/2 "2020-08-05T18:44:09Z")

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This is intended behavior, which means the behavior you were seeing in 7.9 was possibly a bug.

`InstanceName` should return the instance where it was “called” from - in your case, since `InstanceName` is the value of a parameter defined in the `Control` UDT instance, that is the instance that will be returned. If you need the parent instance name, define a parameter in the parent (`CDLR`) that uses `InstanceName` as the value and then your nested instance can bind to that.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jacob.marcum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jacob.marcum](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/jacob.marcum)\
**Post date:** [August 5, 2020, 7:22pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/instancename-parameter-of-udt-tag-containing-udt-instances-not-populating-correctly/37394/3 "2020-08-05T19:22:07Z")

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I appreciate the clarification on InstanceName’s definition. The parent level InstanceName parameter definition works as you described, thank you for the quick reply!