# Using aliases in system.tag.queryTagCalculations

**URL:** <https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/using-aliases-in-system-tag-querytagcalculations/95762>\
**Category:** Ignition\
**Created:** [September 9, 2024, 11:34pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/using-aliases-in-system-tag-querytagcalculations/95762 "2024-09-09T23:34:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 9\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Eugene49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Eugene49](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Eugene49)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2024, 11:34pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/using-aliases-in-system-tag-querytagcalculations/95762/1 "2024-09-09T23:34:56Z")

</div>

This should be so simple, but I could not make it work.  
I want to use aliases but it returns syntax? error?

> **[system.tag.queryTagCalculations | Ignition User Manual](https://docs.inductiveautomation.com/docs/8.1/appendix/scripting-functions/system-tag/system-tag-queryTagCalculations)**
>
> Queries various calculations (aggregations) for a set of tags over a specified range.

Below is syntax from manual:  
`system.tag.queryTagCalculations(paths, calculations, startDate, endDate, rangeHours, rangeMinutes, aliases)`

This is my code:

```python
dsAveAndMaxPower_kw = system.tag.queryTagCalculations(
	tagPaths, ["Average", "Maximum"], startDateTime, endDateTime)

```

Results:

```python
[tagpath, Average, Maximum]
[u'power_kW', 365.82751767161477, 597L]
[u'power_kW', 150.73466397841045, 597L]

```

I want to use Alias so I can rename tagpath.  
but I had syntax error.

```python
dsAveAndMaxPower_kw = system.tag.queryTagCalculations(
	tagPaths, ["Average", "Maximum"], startDateTime, endDateTime, parentPathList)

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**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:** [September 9, 2024, 11:47pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/using-aliases-in-system-tag-querytagcalculations/95762/2 "2024-09-09T23:47:09Z")

</div>

Use keyword arguments to specify the exact parameters you're passing, and ensure they're not evaluated as the wrong argument:

```python
dsAveAndMaxPower_kw = system.tag.queryTagCalculations(
     paths=tagPaths,
     calculations=["Average", "Maximum"],
     startDate=startDateTime, 
     endDate=endDateTime, 
     aliases=parentPathList
)

```

If you don't do that, the system has to _guess_ what you mean, and it guesses that the value you're intending to pass for `aliases` is what you intended to supply for `rangeHours`, which is incompatible.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Eugene49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Eugene49](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Eugene49)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2024, 11:51pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/using-aliases-in-system-tag-querytagcalculations/95762/3 "2024-09-09T23:51:52Z")

</div>

Thanks..  
I found out what is wrong..

The list I was passing was not string.. but type unicode 🤦‍♂️

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**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:** [September 9, 2024, 11:57pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/using-aliases-in-system-tag-querytagcalculations/95762/4 "2024-09-09T23:57:45Z")

</div>

I promise that's not what was wrong.

In Python 2, `basestring` is divided into two types, `str` and `unicode`. Both are basically interchangable as strings to any Java consumer, such as a system function.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Eugene49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Eugene49](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Eugene49)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2024, 11:58pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/using-aliases-in-system-tag-querytagcalculations/95762/5 "2024-09-09T23:58:10Z")

</div>

To be fair, if I use equal assignment on paths, -\> syntax error:

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/2/1/2168f67515b4a277d4584f62c6e8e036ea0dbc69.png)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Eugene49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Eugene49](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Eugene49)\
**Post date:** [September 10, 2024, 12:03am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/using-aliases-in-system-tag-querytagcalculations/95762/6 "2024-09-10T00:03:09Z")

</div>

> [@paul-griffith](#):
>
> I promise that's not what was wrong.

Oh.. you are right..

The list I entered initially was a PySequence. (coming from ds.getColumnAsList)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![lrose](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/lrose/32/62724_2.png) [@lrose](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/lrose)\
**Post date:** [September 10, 2024, 2:39am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/using-aliases-in-system-tag-querytagcalculations/95762/7 "2024-09-10T02:39:29Z")

</div>

> [@Eugene49](#):
>
> The list I entered initially was a PySequence.

Also, not the problem.

Read Paul’s first response.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![lrose](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/lrose/32/62724_2.png) [@lrose](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/lrose)\
**Post date:** [September 10, 2024, 11:42am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/using-aliases-in-system-tag-querytagcalculations/95762/8 "2024-09-10T11:42:57Z")

</div>

You should also note, that once you have started using parameter assignments in the function signature you need to use them for everything following:

```python
dsAveAndMaxPower_kw = system.tag.queryTagCalculations(
    paths=tagPaths,
    ['Average','Maximum'],
    startDateTime,
    endDateTime,
    aliases=l)

```

Will not work.

This will:

```python
dsAveAndMaxPower_kw = system.tag.queryTagCalculations(
    paths=tagPaths,
    calculations=['Average','Maximum'],
    startDate=startDateTime,
    endDate=endDateTime,
    aliases=l)

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Eugene49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Eugene49](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Eugene49)\
**Post date:** [September 14, 2024, 9:15pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/using-aliases-in-system-tag-querytagcalculations/95762/9 "2024-09-14T21:15:09Z")

</div>

> [@lrose](#):
>
> You should also note, that once you have started using parameter assignments in the function signature you need to use them for everything following:

This is probably it (This is it)..  
Mixing keyword and positional arguments.

My bad.

Thank you.