Strange Print behavior

[cre8able]

I have an indicator that detects a mouse click to run a method.

this is the mouse click code

        protected void MouseClicked(object sender, MouseButtonEventArgs e)
        {
            clickPoint.X = ChartingExtensions.ConvertToHorizontalPixels(e.GetPosition(ChartControl as IInputElement).X, ChartControl.PresentationSource);
            clickPoint.Y = ChartingExtensions.ConvertToVerticalPixels(e.GetPosition(ChartControl as IInputElement).Y, ChartControl.PresentationSource);
            
            if(clickPoint.Y > 50 && clickPoint.Y < ChartPanel.H - 150 && clickPoint.X < ChartPanel.W - 200)        
            {
                CheckForMTF(IFVGopen);
                CheckForMTF(IFVGclosed);                
            }
​

A mouse click runs this code

        private void CheckForMTF(List<FVG> myList)
        {
            showMTF = 0;
            {
                double anchorPrice    = Instrument.MasterInstrument.RoundToTickSize(chartScale.GetValueByY((float)clickPoint.Y));            
                DateTime clickTime    = ChartControl.GetTimeBySlotIndex((int)ChartControl.GetSlotIndexByX((int)clickPoint.X));
                
                for (int index = myList.Count - 1; index >= 0 ; index--)    
                {
                    currentTopMTF         = myList[index].top;
                    currentBottomMTF     = myList[index].bottom;
                    currentLeftMTF         = myList[index].gapStartTime;
                    currentRightMTF     = myList[index].gapEndTime;
                    
                    if (currentTopMTF >= anchorPrice && currentBottomMTF <= anchorPrice)
                        if (currentLeftMTF <= clickTime && currentRightMTF >= clickTime)
                    {                            
                        if (myList[index].type == BULL)
                            showMTF = -1;
                        if (myList[index].type == BEAR)
                            showMTF = 1;
                                
Print(anchorPrice + "   " + clickTime + "   " + myList[index].heightT + "    " + showMTF);                    
                        
                    }
                    
                    
                }
            }
        }
​

It runs fine. But when I first load the indicator, there is a single Print line. If I press F5 on the chart to reload the indicator, I get 2 Print lines when I click. If I press F5 again I get 3 Print lines. then 4, then 5. If I remove the indicator and reload it, it goes back to 1 Print line.

here is the output window




This seems like odd behavior so I want to make sure I'm not screwing up something else.

. What is causing it?

[cre8able]

I got the same multiplying Print effect when I used reload historical data. Every time I reloaded Historical data, it printed one more time than before.

That seems wrong

[MojoFilter]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Print statement is inside the loop... so yeah... it's going to print it "index" times based on the decrement of that variable index
Maybe only print it when index = 1 by putting if(index=1) in front of the Print statement?

[cre8able]

hey MojoFilter

the challenge is that the number of times it prints doesn't have anything to do with the loop. The loop just finds the one valid case.

t depends entirely on how many times i either reload historical data or press F5 to refresh the indicator. And there is a one to one correlation to the number of times I refresh to the number of times it prints.

very strange

[MojoFilter]

Just for fun I would put the index value itself into the print statement and see what it does

[cre8able]

this keeps getting "funnier"

here is my updated code. First I changed the print statement to just print out the Count and the index. Then I added clickTime to the print statement

You can see that it is STILL printing the line with just Count and index even though there is no longer a Print statement for that. There is some residual printing phenomena going on.

And each time I refresh the indicator it adds another print line. Same as before. But the count and index haven't changed.

But it DOESN'T change the number of times the phantom Print statement occurs. Probably because it's not longer in the source code. But it still prints






current code

        private void CheckForMTF(List<FVG> myList)
        {
            showMTF = 0;
            double anchorPrice    = Instrument.MasterInstrument.RoundToTickSize(chartScale.GetValueByY((float)clickPoint.Y));            
            DateTime clickTime    = ChartControl.GetTimeBySlotIndex((int)ChartControl.GetSlotIndexByX((int)clickPoint.X));
            
            for (int index = myList.Count - 1; index >= 0 ; index--)    
            {
                currentTopMTF         = myList[index].top;
                currentBottomMTF     = myList[index].bottom;
                currentLeftMTF         = myList[index].gapStartTime;
                currentRightMTF     = myList[index].gapEndTime;
                
                if (currentTopMTF >= anchorPrice && currentBottomMTF <= anchorPrice &&
                    currentLeftMTF <= clickTime && currentRightMTF >= clickTime)
                {        
//---    set foundGap to true so no other gaps get checks                    
                    foundGap = true;
                    if (myList[index].type == BULL)
                        showMTF = -1;
                    if (myList[index].type == BEAR)
                        showMTF = 1;
                            
Print(clickTime + "   " + myList.Count + "   " + index);                    
​

It appears to be some kind of phantom print statement. When I remove the indicator and then re-add it, I get the same multi print line behavior. When I close the workspace and then re-open it, I get the right result



the problem is that I use Print statements to debug code so this kind of behavior is a pain since I have to close and re-open the workspace for the Print statement to work correctly if I change what I print out.

I have put print statements in other parts of my code to debug. Even if I remove the Print statement and re-compile, it continues to Print the phantom line until I close and re-open the workspace.

I don't think its a programming problem

[cre8able]

Commented out Print statement. Re-compiled 3 times (you can tell by the number of times the 2nd Print statement is there.

Commented out print statement still outputs.

Is there something I'm missing on how the print statement is supposed to work? It works correctly if I close and re-open the workspace. But that can't be the way it is intended

[MojoFilter]

I found this thread because I am having strange print behavior also... something is printing the word "else" on every tick apparently, so the data I want to see goes by in a tenth of a second. Long live the print window... the window is junk! lol

[cre8able]

It's a great tool... when it works. And I don't remember having this problem in the past.

[NinjaTrader_ChelseaB]

Hello cre8able,

May I confirm that the button .Click event handler method is being subscribed in State.DataLoaded and unsubscribed in State.Terminated?

[cre8able]

hey Chelsea

I have this in State.DataLoaded

            else if(State == State.DataLoaded)
            {
//---    General            
                if (ChartControl != null)
                    ChartControl.MouseLeftButtonDown += MouseClicked;
                
​

This in State.Terminated

            else if (State == State.Terminated)
            {
                if (ChartControl != null)
                    ChartControl.MouseLeftButtonDown -= MouseClicked;
            }
​

I got the code from MouseXYtoBarTimerPriceExample

[NinjaTrader_ChelseaB]

Hello cre8able,

Using the MouseXYtoBarTimerPriceExample I am not seeing this behavior.

https://ninjatrader.com/support/forum/forum/ninjatrader-8/indicator-development/96421-draw-dot-from-indicator-owner-problem?p=792624#post792624

Using this test script are you using the behavior on your end?

[cre8able]

hey Chelsea

I also don't see the behavior using the MouseXYtoBarTimerPriceExample.

But there must be something weird going on since I get the phantom print statements even if I have already commented them out. I wouldn't think that had anything to do with mouse clicks.

I have a 3526 line program so it's hard to find the source of the problem if I don't have a general direction to look in.

Any suggestions?

[NinjaTrader_ChelseaB]

Hello cre8able,

That would suggest it's something in the code of your specific script that is different than the example.

I would suggest commenting out all of the logic and starting simple with the logic from the example. Be sure to restart NinjaTrader first incase there are left over handlers assigned during changes.