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dhall6938
dhall6938 ✭
in Scanning

I have asked this question before, but I am going to ask it again. The last time that I asked you advised me to delete every single scan and alert and rebuild them all. I have not tried to take on that task yet because it's an enormous job. I have done something which limits all of my scans and alerts to approximately 5500 characters maximum. Because of what you told me last time, I think it has to do with the cutting and pasting that I have done over the years. Maybe it has removed the space for approximately 2500 characters in my scans and alerts. Anyway, if any of this makes sense, is your suggestion the same, delete everything and start from scratch rebuilding everything?

Comments

  • lmkwin
    lmkwin ✭✭

    This would be a great question to submit to Support at StockCharts.com. I had a scan, of moderate length, and for some reason it could not display in the workbench properly. This was after one of the many updates that are performed on the site daily. I had them look at it, and they fixed it relatively quickly.

    I'd give that a shot before rebuilding anything.

  • dhall6938
    dhall6938 ✭

    Thanks. I have submitted it to them again but it's rare for them to respond to my questions. Maybe this time

  • lmkwin
    lmkwin ✭✭

    If you neatly explain the issue you are having, with very specific information for them to research, it makes it highly likely that they will resolve it and possibly let you know. If they have clearly explained issues you are having, the support staff will often login to your account to review the issue to see if they can duplicate it. The issues go to the programmers to review after that.

    I've found attaching screenshots and my step by step process to get to the issue can be helpful as well. I don't get responses all the time but often find them resolved without a response, and THAT is my desired outcome anyway.

  • dhall6938
    dhall6938 ✭

    Thanks again. I don't consider myself very tech savvy, but I have tried to explain it in as much detail as I can. As I think about this problem, and if I understand what I think I do about it, I am not sure that deleting everything will fix my issue. If I understand it, I have built into the blank scans and blank alerts a maximum character of about 5500 give or take a little. I would have to somehow get into all of the blank scans and alerts with the cursor and figure out how to remove or open it back up to the whole 8000 characters. Or, I may need to close this account and open up a brand-new account with brand new and blank scans and alerts.

  • lmkwin
    lmkwin ✭✭

    I think it's been mentioned before, copy / paste from various sources can add hidden characters that appear as blank spaces in the workbench but are treated as something other than a "space" in the scan.

    Do you get any Red X on any of the lines or Yellow Triangles on any of the lines?

    As a possible "solution", The space between the lines can be the issue where the "hidden" characters may lie. I assume you have blank lines for clarity, but let's remove them for this exercise.

    From the workbench copy the 1st section of your scan that is problematic and paste it into a new scan. Check the Sytax and then Save the new scan.

    Copy the 2nd section from the problematic scan and paste it to the new scan. Check the Syntax and Save it.

    Repeat in segments for the rest of the problematic to the new scan.

    Only copy the scan lines and not the blank rows, and/or spaces at the end of the last line of the segments.

    You should be able to Run the saved New scan as you go along to make sure it's running.

    Once you get up to 500 lines copied,

    Add a line at the end of you 500 lines that says //end of the original 500 lines copied. And then Save the new scan.

    You should be able to copy and paste all the lines you saved into the new scan, check Syntax and Save and run.

    This will give you a 1000 line scan. If that works, then copy the 1000 lines and paste, check, save and run the 2000 line scan. Copy the 2000 lines and paste, check, save and run your 4000 line scan. If that works, copy the 4000 lines and paste, check, save and run your 8000 line scan.

    8000+ line scan is what you are looking for. If it works on this test, then you know it's the other 4500 characters in your problematic scan potentially causing the issue.

    Now get rid of the 7500 lines you added to the New scan and continue to copy from the problematic scan, in segments, into the new scan. Check, Save, and Run. Lather Rinse Repeat, until you have it all copied over to the New.

    Remember, Only copy the scan lines and not the blank rows, and/or spaces at the end of the last line of the segments.

    I'd wait a few days before going to all this work though, as I'm gonna assume that Support should be able to find the issue and fix it.

  • dhall6938
    dhall6938 ✭

    Whew, I should have checked in with you sooner. Thanks very much for the advice and I will try it as soon as I am sure that I understand you.

  • dhall6938
    dhall6938 ✭

    FYI, a few weeks ago I manually typed in every character from one of my scans and it still limited me to about 5500 characters give or take a few. I think that what I did may be the same thing you mentioned above

  • markd
    markd mod
    edited December 2025

    Are you counting spaces as characters? It's possible the scan engine does, although I don't know that for sure.

    The syntax checker allows you to write scan lines without spaces between "and" and "or" and the brackets "[" ; it does seem to require spaces between text operators like "is" and "not" and terms, but not between symbol operators like =, +, >, <, etc.

    It also requires spaces between text modifiers, like 1 day ago close.

    So, for instance, this is valid

    [[exchange is NYSE]or[exchange is NASDAQ]]and[[[market cap > 100]and[group is EnergySector]]or[[market cap > 100]and[group is MaterialsSector]]or [[market cap > 100] and [group is IndustrialSector]]

    but this is not

    [exchangeisNYSE]

    and this is not

    and [1dayagoclose>close]

    This has to be

    and [ 1 day ago close>close]

    Also, you don't have to add an "Enter" as a line break character after each ending bracket (although that is recommended for clarity) - if you want to join several "and" or "or" statements together (as in the first example above) you can just keep typing and let the editor put the break in. If the line break counts as a character, you could might save a few characters that way. It makes it harder to read but maybe that's a worthwhile trade-off.

  • dhall6938
    dhall6938 ✭

    Thanks again and sorry for my slow response. Yes, I count a space as a character, and I think that the syntax checker does too. I do use spaces so that I can tell what is going on and I usually put a complete empty line between thoughts so that I can see what I am trying to do. I have tried to compact everything as you suggest, and it helps but it's very small. It doesn't do much to make up for 2400 characters that I have lost, lol. Thanks very much

  • lmkwin
    lmkwin ✭✭

    I have a "new scan" template saved and it says I have 7553 characters left. If 10000 characters is the limit, that would imply the character count of the scan lines is 2447 on the template. If I copy and paste all the lines of the code below the existing code the character count changes to 6105. The 2447 original character count pasted as a 1448 additional characters. I copy and paste the original lines again and an additional 1448 character count is subtracted from the characters left total.

    It is odd. Maybe the 2400 characters you lost have slipped to my workbench. Or maybe the character counter is mistaken. That was using Firefox. I'll have to check it on Chrome.

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