Execute Macro Action With Parameter

Execute Macro has a powerful feature of an optional parameter:

But it seems that this parameter can't be a KM variable... the parameter is taken literally.

Is it true?

Thanks,
--Alain

I will fix that for the next version.

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Well With Parameter is for Execute Macro action input through %TriggerValue% token.

BTW what “clean” way you should recommend to access textual output of this same Execute Macro avoiding potential conflict in call chain?

– Alain

Also trying to make this work.

I have a macro that processes text (Macro B) on a Variable. I want to reuse it with several Variables, with the variable being dynamic (not pre-defined, since I want to be able to change the Variable being processed on the fly).

For example, Macro A:

• Execute Macro B to clean up %Variable%thing1%
• Execute Macro B to clean up %Variable%thing2%
• Execute Macro B to clean up %Variable%thing3%

Right now for each of the variables I want to process I am using:

• Set variable %temp% to %Variable%thing1%
• Execute Macro B (which always processes %temp%)
• Set %Variable%thing1% to %temp%

Is there a way to avoid the need of setting a %temp% variable before and after I execute the macro, by using the “With Parameter” option to pass a variable name to Macro B?

Hope that made sense and thanks in advance!

This is the best I could come up with. By the way, you can get the "With Parameter" parameter by clicking the "gear" icon.

Main Macro:

Subroutine Macro:

Subroutine With Parameter Example.kmlibrary (4.4 KB)

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I have posted the following macro which should do what you are asking for.

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Thanks for the time you put into this Dan!

Wow this is great, I wasn’t sure if it was going to be possible but this looks like exactly what I needed. Going to download them and figure out what you did so I can use them in the future. Looks like I also have something to learn in the way you formatted/organized the macros - that’s a challenge I have is that some of my macros are literally hundreds of actions long so it is really hard to not get lost later :stuck_out_tongue:

Thanks again

No problem. Good luck.

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Can the parameter be used in a simpler way? I just want to pass a constant string without needing any tokens or variables in the calling macro. Can I just put the string in as a parameter? How would I access its value in the executed macro?

Yes. Just put the string in the parameter.

You access it via the %TriggerValue% token.

So here's an example: This is the macro that gets called:

And heres the calling code:

Got it. Thanks. I was misreading the examples that passed a variable rather than a value.

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Yeah - that was the “advanced” version. :slight_smile:

Though actually, why is this any better than setting a variable and using that variable in the executed macro? More elegant, I guess.

Variables are shared by all instances of all macros - the %TriggerValue% token is unique to each instance. So if you had two macros, each executing the same macro, %TriggerValue% would work, but using a variable would fail as whichever was second would clobber the value of the first instance.

Of course, most people don’t use multiple instances of a macro simultaneously, and likely the macro will fail anyway if there are multiple instances and you have not taken care (eg by using a Semaphore action).

Definitely more elegant. The other method requires you know that you have to set a variable, and what the name of the variable is. If you decide you want to change the name of the variable, say, because you've come up with a new variable naming scheme, you have to find all references to the macro and change them.

The second method only requires you to set a parameter, and there's no variable name to have to change.

Other than that, no reason. If you have multiple values to pass, it's often easier to use variables.

I usually put code like this at the top of the called macro:

Just to make sure I don't forget to pass the parameter. I keep this code in a named clipboard, and have a macro that pastes it in. Easy.

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How do you do this now that KM V8 only seems to have Alert with no execution option, i.e. it just Aborts the macro?