After Effects Expression: strings

• CyBrainX

  Is there any way to concatenate two strings in After Effects. No example I find works.

  I would like to accomplish this for source text.

  x = effect("Low number")("Slider").toFixed(0);
  y = effect("High number")("Slider").toFixed(0);
  x + " - " + y;

  but I get errors that the function toFixed doesn't exist. I've tried other methods that don't work either. There should be a simple method. Thanks in advance.

  CyBrainX

  Flag

• CyBrainX0

  If I remove .toFixed(0) I get the error

  "Error line 3...invalid numeric result (divide by 0?)"

  CyBrainX 0Permalink

  UpvoteDownvote

  Dogear

  Flag

  Show [[ numHiddenNotes ]] more notesAdd Note

  SaveCancel

• CyBrainX0

  Ok, I finally got beyond error messages with this.

  x = effect("Low number")("Slider");
  y = effect("High number")("Slider");
  String(x) + " - " + String(y);

  but the text displayed is
  [OBJECT PROPERTY] - [OBJECT PROPERTY]

  CyBrainX 0Permalink

  UpvoteDownvote

  Dogear

  Flag

  Show [[ numHiddenNotes ]] more notesAdd Note

  SaveCancel

• moogchild0

  ^not sure what you're getting at and I wish i could give you some guidance ... However, reaching out to this community is still choice in my opinion.^ :) let's qbn happy hour nyc/brk 2015 ;)

  moogchild 0Permalink

  UpvoteDownvote

  Dogear

  Flag

  • Definitely. It's been a long time since we had one of those.CyBrainX

  Show [[ numHiddenNotes ]] more notesAdd Note

  SaveCancel

• uan0

  could be a multidimensional property you have on the slider, so you would need to address it as
  effect("Low number")("Slider")[0];
  or
  effect("Low number")("Slider")[1];
  aso.

  uan 0Permalink

  UpvoteDownvote

  Dogear

  Flag

  • I'm using two one dimensional sliders. One is named "Low number", the other "High number".CyBrainX

  Show [[ numHiddenNotes ]] more notesAdd Note

  SaveCancel

• uan0

  Expression in the text field source text:
  A = thisComp.layer("Null 1").effect("FirstNumber")("Slide...
  B = thisComp.layer("Null 1").effect("SecondNumber")("Slid...
  this.value = A.value + "-" + B.value;

  this works for me. Using .value.toFixed(0) also works.

  uan 0Permalink

  UpvoteDownvote

  Dogear

  Flag

  • ...r");
    ...r");uan

  Show [[ numHiddenNotes ]] more notesAdd Note

  SaveCancel

• CyBrainX0

  uan,
  That third line was the one that worked for me. I think the [this.value] part was what I was missing. I sorted it out last night by breaking it into to three text objects but it's good to know how to concatenate basic strings in the future.

  Thanks.

  CyBrainX 0Permalink

  UpvoteDownvote

  Dogear

  Flag

  • no problemuan

  Show [[ numHiddenNotes ]] more notesAdd Note

  SaveCancel

• CyBrainX0

  After all that, I decided to use the version I had before with three text objects because the dash was set at one position and it looked better than when it was in one test layer moving around.

  CyBrainX 0Permalink

  UpvoteDownvote

  Dogear

  Flag

  • I remember having to do that in flash some years ago as the solution:)uan
  • I tried to think of this in Flash terms. String(some math expression or numerical value) would make Actionscript accept the value as a string.CyBrainX
  • it as a character string.CyBrainX

  Show [[ numHiddenNotes ]] more notesAdd Note

  SaveCancel

• CyBrainX0

  I love when I search for an expression and come up with a QBN thread from three years ago. Will I ever learn?

  CyBrainX 0Permalink

  UpvoteDownvote

  Dogear

  Flag

  Show [[ numHiddenNotes ]] more notesAdd Note

  SaveCancel