PAT Default Inputs "0" for Double Argument

[craigers290]

I am using a measure that includes a Double argument that has special behavior for a blank value. I've set the default within the measure to "" for a blank default.

arg.setDefaultValue("")

However, when it comes into PAT, it shows up as "inputs": { "default_value": 0}. The resulting behavior is that if I delete the "0" value and save in the PAT GUI, the pat.json reflects "inputs": { "default_value": null}. This will effectively pass a blank into the analysis. But, If you navigate away from the Analysis tab and come back PAT places a "0" back in that field and upon saving the default goes back to "0" from "null".

The best workaround is to set "inputs": { "default_value": ""} directly in the pat.json, but we would prefer the measure established default just carry properly into the PAT.

[shorowit]

When someone works on this, they should check other data types (boolean, integer) for similar behavior.

[labadger]

Confirmed that this is an issue with other data types inluding integer and boolean (with boolean PAT defaults to 'false' or unchecked, which is fine but not okay for numeric input types). We are working with the BuildResidentialHPXML measure from https://github.com/NREL/OpenStudio-HPXML

In previous versions of the measure, default arguments were set with an auto value. Now the default argument has been removed (see example screenshot comparison). When opened in PAT, the input value defaults to 0 for numeric data types. As noted in the original post, you can delete the zero, in which case the pat.json updates to 'null', but as soon as you navigate away and back again the input value reverts to 0. In this measure, there are many arguments that if left blank will initiate a default calculated value and where 0 would be inappropriate.