# Handle LOTS of signals

**URL:** <https://tech-community.robotics.abb.com/t/handle-lots-of-signals/7661>\
**Category:** RobotStudio\
**Created:** [March 30, 2017, 9:46am UTC](https://tech-community.robotics.abb.com/t/handle-lots-of-signals/7661 "2017-03-30T09:46:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Boteon](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/tech-community.robotics.abb.com/boteon/32/4414_2.png) [@Boteon](https://tech-community.robotics.abb.com/u/Boteon)\
**Post date:** [March 30, 2017, 9:46am UTC](https://tech-community.robotics.abb.com/t/handle-lots-of-signals/7661/1 "2017-03-30T09:46:32Z")

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Hi!  
I’m facing this situation: i want to be able to set specific virtual signals without huge TEST-CASE structures.

I’ll try yo explain this better:  
I’m receiving from an external source (e.g. the flexpendant or an external software via socket) the number of the signal i want to change. In order to maintain this structure flexible i want to manage something like 1000 signals equally divided in input and output ones.  
Now, the number i received has to correspond to a specific signal. I would like to identify this signal without using a huge test-case structure. Is it possible in any ways? The name or the label of the signals are not important for my purpose.

Thanks,  
Matteo

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**Author:** ![soup](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/tech-community.robotics.abb.com/soup/32/1592_2.png) [@soup](https://tech-community.robotics.abb.com/u/soup)\
**Post date:** [March 30, 2017, 9:11pm UTC](https://tech-community.robotics.abb.com/t/handle-lots-of-signals/7661/2 "2017-03-30T21:11:51Z")

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Interesting problem. Never done it in production, but making a string from the number then aliasing to that output seems to work in a virtual test.

PROC SignalNameFromNum()

!made virtual digital outputs = “do\_61”, “do\_62”, “do\_63”  
VAR signaldo aliasOutput;  
VAR num signalNumber;  
VAR string SignalName;

signalNumber:=62;  
SignalName:=“do\_”+NumToStr(signalNumber,0);  
AliasIO SignalName, aliasOutput;

SetDO aliasOutput, 1;

ENDPROC

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Boteon](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/tech-community.robotics.abb.com/boteon/32/4414_2.png) [@Boteon](https://tech-community.robotics.abb.com/u/Boteon)\
**Post date:** [March 31, 2017, 7:32am UTC](https://tech-community.robotics.abb.com/t/handle-lots-of-signals/7661/3 "2017-03-31T07:32:11Z")

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Wow, brilliant solution! I didn’t consider AliasIO because i thought it would accept only Signado variables. I’ll try it. Thanks!!