Variant object

Store alternate component values

Description

The SimBiology^® variant object stores the names and values of model components and allows you to use the values stored in a variant object as the alternate value to be applied during a simulation. You can store values for species InitialAmount, parameter Value, and compartment Capacity in a variant object. Simulating using a variant does not alter the model component values. The values specified in the variant temporarily apply during simulation.

Using one or more variant objects associated with a model allows you to evaluate model behavior during simulation, with different values for the various model components without having to search and replace these values, or having to create additional models with these values. If you determine that the values in a variant object accurately define your model, you can permanently replace the values in your model with the values stored in the variant object, using the commit method.

To use a variant in a simulation you must add the variant object to the model object and set the Active property of the variant to true. Set the Active property to true if you always want the variant to be applied before simulating the model. You can also enter the variant object as an argument to sbiosimulate; this applies the variant only for the current simulation and supersedes any active variant objects on the model.

Warning

The Active property of the Variant object will be removed in a future release. Explicitly specify a variant or an array of variants as an input argument when you simulate a model using sbiosimulate.

When there are multiple active variant objects on a model, if there are duplicate specifications for a property's value, the last occurrence for the property value in the array of variants, is used during simulation. You can find out which variant is applied last by looking at the indices of the variant objects stored on the model. Similarly, in the Content property, if there are duplicate specifications for a property's value, the last occurrence for the property in the Content property, is used during simulation.

Use the addcontent method to append contents to a variant object.

See Property Summary for links to species property reference pages. Properties define the characteristics of an object. Use the get and set commands to list object properties and change their values at the command line. You can graphically change object properties in the graphical user interface.

Constructor Summary

sbiovariant

Construct variant object

Method Summary

Methods for variant objects

addcontent (variant)	Append content to variant object
commit (variant)	Commit variant contents to model
copyobj	Copy SimBiology object and its children
delete	Delete SimBiology object
display	Display summary of SimBiology object
get	Get SimBiology object properties
rename	Rename object and update expressions
rmcontent (variant)	Remove contents from variant object
set	Set SimBiology object properties
verify (model, variant)	Validate and verify SimBiology model

Property Summary

Properties for variant objects

Active	Indicate object in use during simulation
Content	Contents of variant object
Name	Specify name of object
Notes	HTML text describing SimBiology object
Parent	Indicate parent object
Tag	Specify label for SimBiology object
Type	Display SimBiology object type
UserData	Specify data to associate with object