# Trying to use group level custom property as tag path var

**URL:** <https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/trying-to-use-group-level-custom-property-as-tag-path-var/5508>\
**Category:** Ignition\
**Created:** [November 30, 2012, 4:31pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/trying-to-use-group-level-custom-property-as-tag-path-var/5508 "2012-11-30T16:31:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![maz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9c0ed/32.png) [@maz](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/maz)\
**Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 4:31pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/trying-to-use-group-level-custom-property-as-tag-path-var/5508/1 "2012-11-30T16:31:12Z")

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Hi all,

As you might have picked up I’m trying to use a string in a group level custom property (Root Container.Group 9.Base = “[Client]NDFTags/FactoryPower/SUS1”) so that components within the group can use that base for calculating values. The easy way to get around this is to have half a dozen group level properties directly bound to the appropriate tag values, but that doesn’t scale very well past this sandbox project I’m using. What already works looks like this:

```auto
{Root Container.Group 9.CurrLoad}/{Root Container.Group 9.ParentLoad}
```

What I would like to do is have value expressions that look more like this:

```auto
{{Root Container.Group 9.Base}/CurrLoad}/{{Root Container.Group 9.Parent}/CurrLoad}
```

But of course Ignition doesn’t like nested paths.

There’s an obvious benefit to being able to include something like a variable in the tag path: I can put this in the Custom Palette and when I need to place copies all I have to change is one or two tag paths instead of 6 (and likely much more in similar components as the system develops) tag links. Is there a way to work around this? Is my problem syntax or is there just no way to do what I’m trying to do?

Thanks.

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**Author:** ![Travis.Cox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Travis.Cox](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Travis.Cox)\
**Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 5:03pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/trying-to-use-group-level-custom-property-as-tag-path-var/5508/2 "2012-11-30T17:03:05Z")

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If you want to address tags indirectly in expressions you have to use the tag function. Here is an example:`toFloat(tag({Root Container.Group 9.Base} + "/CurrLoad")) / toFloat(tag({Root Container.Group 9.Parent} + "/CurrLoad"))`

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**Author:** ![maz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9c0ed/32.png) [@maz](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/maz)\
**Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 5:57pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/trying-to-use-group-level-custom-property-as-tag-path-var/5508/3 "2012-11-30T17:57:38Z")

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Perfect. That was the piece I was missing. Thanks again!