Programmable logic controller peripheral device and program creation method thereof

A program creating method of copying a portion of an existing sequence program and pasting the portion into a new sequence program, for a peripheral device for a programmable logic controller, the method comprising:

• a search and determination step of searching an instruction table for storing instructions and storing corresponding input/output types of parameters for the instructions, for an instruction in a code in a portion of the sequence program selected as diversion data from an existing diversion-source sequence program, to determine a corresponding input/output type of a parameter for the instruction in the code, wherein the input/output types of the parameters for the instructions comprise an input type, an output type, and an internal type;
• a search result creating and storing step of creating and storing into a memory a search result table by combining the determined corresponding input/output type, with at least one of input/output address and internal address in the code in the selected portion of the sequence program;
• a component data creating step of creating a variable data table by automatically replacing the determined corresponding input/output types stored in the search result table with variable names, and of creating component data by adding the corresponding variable names to variables and to circuit information;
• a component data diversion step of diverting the component data into an arbitrary position in a new sequence program as a diversion destination;
• a sequence-program-component storing step of storing into a component storage the created component data as a sequence program component;
• a sequence-program-component displaying step of displaying the sequence program components stored in the component storage;
• a sequence-program-component selecting step of selecting a desired sequence program component from the sequence program components displayed in the sequence-program-component displaying step;
• and
• a sequence-program-component diversion step of diverting into a new sequence program the desired sequence program component that has been selected.

A peripheral device for a programmable logic controller, comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a memory storing software modules, the software modules comprising:
• an instruction table that stores instructions and stores corresponding input/output types of parameters for the instructions, wherein the input/output types stored in the instruction table comprise at least one of an input type, an output type, or an internal type;
• a search and determination module that searches the instruction table for an instruction in a code in a portion of a sequence program selected as diversion data from an existing diversion-source program, to determine a corresponding input/output type of a parameter for the instruction;
• a search result creating and storing module that creates and stores a search result table by combining at least one of input/output address and internal address in the code in the selected portion of the sequence program, with the determined corresponding input/output type;
• a component data creating module that creates a variable data table by automatically replacing the determined corresponding input/output types stored in the search result table with variable names, and creates component data by adding the corresponding variable names to variables and to circuit information;
• a component data diversion module that diverts the component data into an arbitrary position in a designated sequence program;
• a sequence-program-component storing module for storing into a component storage the created component data as a sequence program component;
• a sequence-program-component displaying device for displaying the sequence program components stored in the component storage;
• a sequence-program-component selecting module for selecting a desired sequence program component from the sequence program components displayed by the sequence-program-component displaying device;
• and
• a sequence-program-component diversion module for diverting the selected sequence program component into a new sequence program.