Renaming of PI Points

Chiming in some more. Whether you absolutely need to change Tag names in an application depends upon whether that application uses only Names or if it uses PointIDs.

In AF, when you "Create or Update PI Point", the data reference will at that instant attempt to find the PI Point using Tag Name. If it is found, then the data reference then saves the PointID into a hidden portion of the ConfigString. Any subsequent requests to find PI Point will then use the saved PointID for a much faster lookup. Using PointID also means that if the Tag name is changed elsewhere that find should still work.

If you were to later issue another "Create or Update PI Point" on the same tags, then the lookup would fail since it would try to lookup by a name that has been changed.

For DataLink, it is possible to lookup by PointID but I have rarely seen this done. Just like with AF, it requires a Tag name look up first in order to save the PointID to the spreadsheet. Therefore, Tag names in a spreadsheet would need to also be changed in order for any DataLink commands to work properly.

As you have tagged the post with "General Programming", let me guess that you are really asking about writing a custom app to walkover an AFDatabase to find & change tag names embedded in the ConfigString, and/or another app to open an Excel Workbook to also find & change tag names stored as text in cells.

Walking over an AFDatabase could be relatively straightforward with AF SDK, trying to edit Excel Workbooks is far more complicated since you must read text in a cell. How would you know that a given cell is to contain a Tag name or something else? Do any of the tags have Performance Equations that require you to edit the tag names embedded within the PE? Do you have sufficient programming skills to do this?

Chiming in some more. Whether you absolutely need to change Tag names in an application depends upon whether that application uses only Names or if it uses PointIDs.

In AF, when you "Create or Update PI Point", the data reference will at that instant attempt to find the PI Point using Tag Name. If it is found, then the data reference then saves the PointID into a hidden portion of the ConfigString. Any subsequent requests to find PI Point will then use the saved PointID for a much faster lookup. Using PointID also means that if the Tag name is changed elsewhere that find should still work.

If you were to later issue another "Create or Update PI Point" on the same tags, then the lookup would fail since it would try to lookup by a name that has been changed.

For DataLink, it is possible to lookup by PointID but I have rarely seen this done. Just like with AF, it requires a Tag name look up first in order to save the PointID to the spreadsheet. Therefore, Tag names in a spreadsheet would need to also be changed in order for any DataLink commands to work properly.

As you have tagged the post with "General Programming", let me guess that you are really asking about writing a custom app to walkover an AFDatabase to find & change tag names embedded in the ConfigString, and/or another app to open an Excel Workbook to also find & change tag names stored as text in cells.

Walking over an AFDatabase could be relatively straightforward with AF SDK, trying to edit Excel Workbooks is far more complicated since you must read text in a cell. How would you know that a given cell is to contain a Tag name or something else? Do any of the tags have Performance Equations that require you to edit the tag names embedded within the PE? Do you have sufficient programming skills to do this?