▶ C'mon over to https://realpars.com/ where you can learn PLC programming faster and easier than you ever thought possible! ▶ You can read the full post here https://realpars.com/structured-text ⌚Timestamps: 00:00 - Intro 00:24 - IEC-61131 programming languages 00:47 - Structured text advantages and disadvantages 03:02 - Basic rules of structured text syntax 04:09 - Structured text operators 04:26 - Structured text examples ============================= As one of the IEC-61131 PLC programming languages, Structured Text or just ST is based on and resembles traditional programming languages like Python or Java. Rather than being visual or graphics-based like ladder logic or Function Block Diagram, Structured Text is just that, text! Like all programming languages, Structured Text has advantages and disadvantages, and there are also reasons you as a programmer might choose to use Structured Text in your next PLC programming project. Since Structured Text is similar to traditional High-Level programming languages, it can be fairly easy for many people who may not have a background in PLC programming but have experience in traditional coding to learn and develop PLC projects. In most cases, you can also develop your Structured Text PLC programming project without using the PLC programming software. Since it is text-based, you can write your project in a simple text file and copy and paste it into your PLC project when you are ready. This also makes editing your project easier when you are debugging. While this feature of Structured Text is useful, remember that without your programming software like TIA Portal or RSLogix, you cannot compile and debug your program. Most PLC manufacturers support different programming languages in their PLC’s and this is because there are many different reasons that a programmer will choose a particular programming language. These reasons can be as simple as a client request for a specific programming language all the way to the size of the programming project. Since Structured Text is by definition, text-based, it means that it does not have the memory-intensive graphical interface which can allow for a smaller processor memory and therefore a reduced cost. This makes Structured Text an ideal candidate for larger PLC programs where controller memory is at a premium. Some other times you might want to use Structured Text are when you are deploying the same PLC program over and over, such as in a packaged machine that is sent to a customer for a turn-key start-up. In these cases, your PLC program file can be stored offline in a text file or word document and can be easily sent as an email attachment for someone to download into the PLC and deploy. The syntax of Structured Text follows some basic rules: - First, all statements in Structured Text will end with a semicolon. - A routine will close out with an End_If statement. - Spaces and tabs are not required, but a good programmer will still use them for readability. - Structured Text is not case sensitive, but if you are assigning a variable, known as a tag or a symbol such as “control valve 1”, then using camelCase ControlValve1 is a good practice to get into. Another very common and useful syntax of Structured Text is the use of a comment. As a beginning programmer, the use of comments is essential to creating code that can be read later on. To add a comment in Structured Text you will start with a left parenthesis followed by an asterisk. To close your comment, you will then add another asterisk followed by a right parenthesis. Structured Text also uses operators to manipulate data. Some examples of operators are the logical operators such as AND, OR, and NOT. A logical operator is used to compare Boolean data and create logic from it. ============================= Get a RealPars pro membership: https://learn.realpars.com/bundles/pro ============================= Missed our most recent videos? Watch them here: https://realpars.com/hydroelectric-power https://realpars.com/pt100 https://realpars.com/speed-droop ============================= To stay up to date with our last videos, make sure to subscribe to this YouTube channel: http://bit.ly/realpars ============================= TWEET THIS VIDEO: https://ctt.ac/Uef14 ============================= Follow us on Facebook 👉 https://www.facebook.com/therealpars Follow us on Twitter 👉 https://twitter.com/realpars Follow us on LinkedIn 👉 https://www.linkedin.com/company/realpars Follow us on Instagram 👉 https://www.instagram.com/realparsdotcom #RealPars #PLCprogramming #StructuredText