Slots in RPL

A slot is an opening, usually narrow, into which something can be placed or inserted. Slot can also refer to a position or job. For example, in a football game, a slot may refer to a player who is near the ball and is positioned to receive a pass or kick. A slot can also be a place or position in a line-up. For example, a person who is in the number 1 slot in a baseball team is in the starting lineup.

The term “hot” is often used to describe slots that have recently paid out money to players. However, this can be misleading and should not be used to refer to a specific slot. Instead, the better way to describe a slot is its volatility. This is a measure of how much the slot tends to win and lose. It is based on the amount of money won divided by the amount of money played for a specified timeframe (1 hr to 30 days). A hot slot will typically have higher winnings but may also have high losses as well.

There are two main types of slot: periodic and table. A periodic slot can be configured with various period, interval, and data interpolation settings. These are accessible through the View, then Configure Period menu. A periodic slot can be accessed from RPL with standard series syntax such as DateTime: Slot[E]. Note that the periodic slot configuration is applied to the entire model. A RPL reference to a value outside of the range of the periodic input will return NaN.

Table slots are used to store any table of data. These can be 2-Dimensional or 3-Dimensional and may require monotonically increasing or decreasing values. For example, a 3-Dimensional periodic table could be used to store the different pool elevations that define a reservoir during a flood or surcharge event.

A table slot can be configured with a variety of headers including text and numeric values. For numeric headers, the periodic slot can be configured with a min and max value as well as a range. This allows you to use a numeric column value that falls within the range and it will be linearly interpolated for you.

When a slot is docked onto a Slot Viewer, the associated Slot Dialog will open so you can edit the expression or data. A slot with an expression will have special ornamentation in its column heading to indicate that there is an expression to be edited. You can dock a slot by clicking its icon in the Slot Viewer or by using the File, then Dock in Slot Viewer menu. For more information on Slot Dialogs see Slot Viewer Functionality.