Buffer Inspector Kb - script for MetaTrader 5

Buffer Inspector Kb is a script that answers the first question of anybody who wants to use an indicator in an Expert Advisor or an alert tool: which buffer holds the signal? Drop it on a chart that already has the indicator. It reads every buffer of every indicator on the chart, including the colour and calculation buffers that the Data Window does not show, tells what each buffer holds - arrows, a line or a colour index - and writes the buffer number next to the last arrows on the chart.

Examples\Fractals: B0 is written above the upper fractals and B1 below the lower ones; the report is on the chart and in the Experts journal

Why the Data Window is not enough

The Data Window lists only the buffers that are drawn. A colour buffer (the colour of Heiken Ashi candles, of a two-colour moving average) is hidden there, and every buffer after it gets a different number in an Expert Advisor than its position in the Data Window suggests. Indicators bought on the Market come without source code, so the SetIndexBuffer calls cannot be read either. The script reads the buffers the way an Expert Advisor does, with CopyBuffer, so the numbers it shows are the numbers to use in iCustom.

How a buffer is classified

• Arrows: values on 30% of the bars or fewer, empty (EMPTY_VALUE or 0) on the others. The report gives the number of arrows and the time and price of the latest one, and the arrows are labelled B0, B1... on the chart.
• Colour index: only small whole numbers in a narrow range, for example 0 and 1. The report gives the range and the value on the last closed bar, so the number can be matched with the colour you see.
• Line: a value on almost every bar. The report gives the current value and the range.
• Empty: no values on the inspected bars.

Only closed bars are read: the forming bar of many arrow indicators changes until it closes. If an indicator has no arrow buffer although arrows are visible on the chart, the report says that the indicator probably draws them as objects, which no program can read through iCustom.

Input parameters

Using the result in an Expert Advisor

For every arrow buffer the report ends with the line to use: CopyBuffer(handle, n, 1, 1, v) and a signal when v[0] is neither EMPTY_VALUE nor 0. Read the last closed bar (shift 1) and react once per new bar; some indicators confirm a signal later - a fractal needs two more bars - and then the signal bar is 3, not 1.

The source code is short and commented: it shows ChartIndicatorGet for indicators that are already on the chart, IndicatorCreate with a parameter list built from a text string, waiting for BarsCalculated, and the classification of a buffer by its values.