Step through tool in NT?

[Burga1]

Greetings,

I've got an indicator showing some very odd behaviour. I'm simply using it to read a simple text file, and color the (historical) chart bars depending on values that have been read into the indicator from the input file.

Using Print statements I have verified all the lines are being properly read from the input file. The general flow of the indicator works like this:

try
{
//read each line from the input file...
while ((line = sr.ReadLine()) != null)
{
//read each character on each line, to get some values...
for(int index = 0; index < line.Length; index++)
{
...
}

//Each line from input file represents data for each bar on the chart.
//Using calculated values from each line, change bar to a certain color.
//Different values should change bars to different colors...

}
}

The problem is all the bars change to the same color. Even if I add a variable "counter" within the "while" loop to count the # of lines and use this to dictate some action (for example if(COUNTER == 12){do something;}) I see the same exact behaviour (all the bars have the same color regardless if it is bar #12 or not). It is very odd.

I don't believe NT has a "step through" type of debug tool in order to follow how NT is reading the code line-by-line...is there such a tool or is there an obvious flaw in the program flow? Thanks for any input.

[NinjaTrader_Ray]

You can use Visual Studio 05 or higher for true debugging.

Information here - http://www.ninjatrader-support.com/H...ualStudio.html

[Burga1]

Thanks. Since that option will not work with "Express" editions that kinda stops me dead in my tracks right there...

I do have a related question. If I have a simple .txt file that contains lines representing information for a bar on a price chart, is it possible to backtest import line-by-line? For example:

if my .txt file contains this information:

3 0.00E+000 1.94E+001
3 0.00E+000 8.88E+000
6 3.18E+000 0.00E+000
6 -2.20E+000 -1.74E+000
6 -3.10E+000 -2.13E+000

then the first line is used for the first bar on a (historical) chart, the second line for the second, and so on...do not read the lines in the file that don't apply to the bar in question.

Normally doing a backtest on historical bars will load/read ALL the lines in the file for EACH bar included in the historical chart...hope that makes sense.

[NinjaTrader_Ray]

You would have to check MSDN DOC on StreamReader but I know some IO object has a method to read line by line...Something like object.ReadNextLine() etc..

[Burga1]

Thank you. Are there no existing examples of this for NT? I find that a bit hard to believe...there must be similar type situations where, for example, a strategy/indicator is reading in trade entry signals from an external (text file) source?

[Burga1]

A guess another (better) way to explain my question is how to populate the chart info using a .txt file if each line in the .txt file represents one bar on the chart...thus:

line #1 in the .txt file = bar[0]
line #2 in the .txt file = bar[1]
line #3 in the .txt file = bar[2]
line #4 in the .txt file = bar[3]
etc...

[NinjaTrader_Ray]

You would have to figure out how to sync the current bar number with a line in the text file.

[Burga1]

Thanks. I've written code to attempt to do that here:

try
{
// Sets the file the StreamReader will read from
sr = new System.IO.StreamReader(path);


string line; NUMBER = 0; COUNTER = 95; AIindex = 0;



FINDER:


if(CurrentBar == (NUMBER + 20))
{
line = sr.ReadLine();
} //CurrentBar equals NUMBER + 20 ("1st" written line in .txt file is "bar 20" of chart...)

AIindex += 1; NUMBER += 1;
if(AIindex < COUNTER){goto FINDER;} return;

} //try


The issue is the "sr.ReadLine()" command seems to be returning nothing...I don't understand why. Can somebody explain why that is the case, I believe the code as written is fine otherwise.

[NinjaTrader_JoshP]

Have you checked error logs? Anything in there?

[Burga1]

Nothing in the logs at all. That code I posted works fine, however the Print statement I use for the "line" value outputs nothing at all...not even a "0", just blank space. Is there a better command statement to use?

[NinjaTrader_Dierk]

>> Is there a better command statement to use?
no

[Josh Heitzman]

Thanks. Since that option will not work with &quot;Express&quot; editions that kinda stops me dead in my tracks right there...

Since the issue appears to lie with StreamReader specifically, rather then a NinjaTrader API, you could likely lift out just the StreamReader code into VS C# Express and debug the StreamReader issue specifically.