MQL4 to MQL5 - Conversion Process

My intention with this thread is to have all info about the process to convet indicators and experts from MT4 to MT5.
I don't have 100% the sollution about it, but step by step we can do it toguether here.
There isn't nothing in the world (until now), that with just one click you'll be able to convert it, unfortunately.
On MQL5 community has articles about it and here in FF we also can find some.
So, let's improve and update everything we can here.

A script was developed by Keiji and Circlesquares. You have to download the following files and place them in your instalation:

Metatrader 4 / Include

- mt4accountinfo.mqh
- mt4string.mqh
- mt4datetime.mqh
- mt4objects_1.mqh
- mt4timeseries_2.mqh
- mq4.mqh
- initmql4.mqh
- mq4_mq5_bridge.mqh
- mql4compat.mqh



Place the the rewrite script in your:

Metatrader 4 / Scripts

- mq4to5rewrite.mq4



Now put your MQL4 indicator or EA that you wanna convert to MQL5, in your folder:

Metatrader 4 / Files



Open any chart execute the script.
You'll see a window will open, now you type the exactly name (without extension) of your MQL4 file and select if it is an Indicator (0), EA (1) or Script (2) file.



Click 'OK' to proceed the conversion:


It's partial Done!


Go to the Files folder and see the conversion results, you should find your MQL5 file:


Now copy your new MQL5 file to the MT5 instalation Expert or Indicator... whatever you converted and finaly, compile and test it!

In the most of cases, you'll got erros on compiling. Attached you have some important documentation to fix the erros you can get about your compile.
If you don't have expirience with developing, be patience and first try yourself and than ask for help.
Share here your results, doubts, goals and etc.

I hope this thread can be usefull for everybody.

Best regards,

Surely this should be classed as Platform Tech

Maybe yes.

This is awesome thanks for this, do you have any idea on turning indicators to EA on mt5? It is not a signal generating EA, just seconds chart. Thanks

Thanks for this thread.

Please I got errors. see the attached converted indicator.

hi, does this wonderful converter convert .mqh??

Please Help I'm getting this Error after Conversion

please How Can I fix this

Unexpected End of Program
Unbalanced parenthesis

can somebody convert it into mql5

Pls. convert https://www.forexfactory.com/thread/...n-math-grid-ea

Is anyone else that tried this getting the following error:
Alert: File (any mq4) not found, the last error is cannot open file

Appreciate any help with this, if anyone knows a way around this. Thought I could play around with this to see what it can do and see if I could mess with some code myself to maybe get them to compile. I tried different indicators and it won't work with anything. Maybe I am doing something wrong? I did take a look at the script quickly and it shows it queries account balance and stuff like that. I am testing this on an invalid old demo account MT4 platform. Do I need to be connected for this to work?

When MT5 was released I remember there being similar conversion tools for this but never bothered to try them because MT5 was geared to only American (retail) retail regulations like NFA and FIFO rules etc, so I never bothered. I wanted to try a Renko shifted indicator with MT5 and understand it probably would not easily convert using this but I wanted to give a try anyway. Looks like I will have to shell out some money to have one made instead.

I don't yet use MT5, but in preparation for the inevitable (?) day it is necessary, I attempted a translation and while the scripts were helpful, it doesn't yet handle as much of the conversion as I would hope.

First off, to clear up confusion from the previous post, the script most definitely does NOT actually *query* "account balance and stuff like that". When I read that comment, it was a huge red flag that this code might be attempting to steal personal details, but since the source code is provided, it is clear that it is only attempting to translate MQL4 syntax into MQL5 equivalent (e.g. MQL4 string "AccountBalance(" is replaced by MQL5 string "AccountInfoDouble(ACCOUNT_BALANCE" ). If the rest of the command arguments are the same, then sure, it might work. Often times it does. But the script does not *run* these commands.


However, I wish the script were more capable to interpret more than just a simple command string replacement, and to instead consider 1-or-more of the specific MQL4 argument(s) and to substitute the equivalent MQL5 command.

Examples:

(EDITED: Correction! MQL5 does not support "OBJPROP_PRICE1", but rather only "OBJPROP_PRICE" plus the additional modifier argument of ",1". Same for TIME1)

#1
ObjectGet(objname,OBJPROP_PRICE1) should be translated to: ObjectGetDouble(0,name,OBJPROP_PRICE,1);

but:
ObjectGet(objname,OBJPROP_TIME1) should be translated to: ObjectGetInteger(0,name,OBJPROP_TIME,1);

So, based on the 2nd argument in ObjectGet, translate it to either ObjectGetDouble, or ObjectGetInteger.
EDIT: AND, the argument needs to be split up into two parts, e.g. "OBJPROP_PRICE" followed by ",1"

#2
MarketInfo(sym,MODE_POINT) should be translated to: SymbolInfoDouble(sym,SYMBOL_POINT)

but:
MarketInfo(sym,MODE_DIGITS) should be translated to: SymbolInfoInteger(sym,SYMBOL_DIGITS)

Again, one is a Double, the other an Integer.

This translation script does not yet detect any arguments and make these appropriate translations.


Another aspect of this program I would like to see improved is to not just consider a line-of-text when looking for command substitution, but to gather all of the command arguments between "(" and ")" before making the substitution, so that the specific argument can be parsed correctly.

For example, it I want to change the PRICE1 of an object to the PRICE2 value of the same or other object, I might have the MQL4 as:
ObjectSet( name,
OBJPROP_PRICE1,
ObjectGet(name,OBJPROP_PRICE2)
);

The highlights of this example are: 1) A commands' arguments might be spread out over multiple lines. 2) One of the arguments is itself a command that has a related property, OBJPROP_PRICE2, that must not be confused with the modifier for the first 'ObjectSet' command. The command arguments must be parsed by checking for "," between arguments, and track each one, checking only the specific argument when deciding what to substitute.

While one could certainly manually edit an .mt4 file in advance of translation, and combine some of these arguments onto one line, but it would be better to have the script intelligently parse the input file.


In post #1, it says to copy the #include files into the MQL4\Include\ folder. The same files should also be copied to the MQL5\Include\ folder.

Regarding these include files, I can see how some of the functions could be easily improved to reduce Compiler Warnings about type conversion.

For example, in mt4objects.mqh is 'ObjectType':



Eventually, when translating MQL4 to MQL5 is important and necessary for me to do, for myself, then I will look into this topic again to see what translators are available then, and whether this one or any other fixes and handles more of the translation.

I am grateful that someone else created a starting point for the translation, so in no way is this a criticism of the author(s) and contributors. It's a big task, and this is a good starting point.

I decided to jump in and fully convert a MT4 file of interest to me to MT5, mainly to see how much work it takes, and to test the converter tools in post#1.

Overall, the converter helped, but it's very limited. It takes someone familiar with coding to actually make all the necessary changes -- no surprise there.

To that end, I made a few changes that are included as attachments, along with my .mq4 source, my initial converted .mq5, and then my fully converted .mq5, with plenty of manual edits to over 100 errors, and even more warnings.

With reference to my previous post, I modified the mt4objects.mqh for my purposes, and created overloaded functions ObjectGet / ObjectSet, which *might* work but are not thoroughly tested yet. The idea I implemented is to detect which prop_id the user has given, and if it's a double-type property, then use 'ObjectGetDouble', and if it's integer type, then use 'ObjectGetInteger'. I'm hoping it will actually work in a more robust test of it. (TBD).

In another thread, someone asked for a MT5 version of Hanover's 'Daily LinesBoxes(1).mq4' file. His file does what it says, BUT it also has his complete b600+ library of functions in the source. Most functions are not needed... but I converted them anyway. No compilation errors or warnings.

The conversion script and #include files in post#1 were very helpful, but I also had to do a LOT of manual editing, and sometimes un-did what the script had done.

EDIT(2)!! In MT5, only 'input' variables display in the "Inputs" tab, no longer also "extern" vars as MT4 does. My previous comment to just use 'extern' was wrong!
Since this indicator manually changes the values internally, I was forced to duplicate every 'input' variable to an equivalent internal global var, and make the values the same first thing within OnInit(). e.g. "input int LookbackDays_;" then define global "int LookbackDays;", then in OnInit: "LookbackDays = LookbackDays_;" Chalk this one up to differences in MT5 vs. (post build 600) MT4.

When there were a few warnings (maybe errors too?) in the #include files, I edited the code to fix them.

Some things that weren't converted well: MQL5 only has: bool StringConcatenate( string& OUTVAR, string1, ... ).
Therefore it forces you to rearrange some code to accomplish the same thing.

MQL4: string out = StringTrimLeft( StringConcatenate(" Whatever"," I want", " to write"));

MQL5 equivalent:
string out;
StringConcatenate(out, " Whatever"," I want", " to write");
StringTrimLeft( out );

Any calls like "ObjectGet(name,OBJPROP_PRICE1)" had to be converted manually to: "ObjectGetDouble(0,name,OBJPROP_PRICE,1)".
Notice the 'ObjectGetDouble', AND the fact that OBJPROP_PRICE1 prop_id is no longer supported; rather, just "OBJPROP_PRICE" plus the "1" as a modifier.

There were some other things I had to handle, like reserved keywords, inserting tons of type conversions to fix warnings, and whatever else it took. You can compare the original vs. the raw/initially converted .mt5, and then the final .mt5 (which happens to have also appended all the #include files, so it is self-contained!).

Sometimes new MT5 behavior dictates a few changes:
This indicator creates many OBJ_RECTANGLE objects. In MT5, there is a new OBJPROP_FILL property, with an apparent default of 'false', regardless of the choice of OBJPROP_BACKGROUND value. In MT4, when the background is true, the rectangle is filled, but it's not this way in MT5. Therefore, I added to the new code a few lines to set this new property, usually as 'true', to match the initial background property value.

As usual, I've spent too much time on this project, especially since I don't yet care about MT5! It's just because I was curious to see how tough it might be going forward.

This converter tool "works", but there is a lot of room for improvement. Other coders -- especially those who do care more about MT5 than me -- are welcome to jump in and make your own contributions to the converter code and #include files.

NOTE: I was unsuccessful to use the original "mt4timeseries_2.mqh" file. It defines overloaded functions, like "iTime(...)", to complement the native functions. Unfortunately, it wouldn't compile for me without problems, with some mention of difficulty to distinguish the overloaded function from the original. The latest MT5 is now many years later than post#1, so perhaps the behavior has changed?? I can see how it could be useful, but it didn't work for me. YMMV.

Kent (pips4life)

NOTE! I did not fully test this converted indicator!! By my quick observations, it appears to work, but it's entirely possible there are some aspects which do not yet work properly. Feel free to point them out, but know that I'm not really interested myself to take on much maintenance and further work on this. It all depends on how easy or hard I think the problem is; but if there is a problem, it will still be useful to point out, since it could be a flaw with the conversion process. Also note that Hanover's library of functions is very complicated and based on subtle code behavior that goes back to pre-MT4-build 509. If MT5 works differently in subtle ways vs. MT4 b600+ or <b509, I wouldn't be surprised at all.

I find it helpful to display text files side-by-side that show the differences. I purchased "ExamDiff PRO" myself, and I like it, but no doubt there are many choices.
One could display a difference between text files:

Daily LinesBoxes(1) MT4.mq4 vs. Daily LinesBoxes(1) MT5.mq5 (The original vs. the final, and self-contained, MT5 version).

mq4 Daily LinesBoxes(1).mq4 vs. Daily LinesBoxes(1) MT5.mq5 (The initial output of the MT5 conversion tool, vs. the final MT5 version).

P.S.
EDIT! It never fails, when I rush to do something before heading out the door somewhere, I get sloppy. In the .mq5 file, I did not actually set the new rectangle OBJPROP_FILL correctly. Fixed in this v5.1. However, according to the stats, no one had downloaded it yet from this post.

MT5 sucks and there is not much you can do about it. While I like some of the "new" features of MT5, MT4 still is my main trading platform. Upgrade your MQL4 to latest version, up to the specs of MQL5 and move on. There is no reason to switch platforms. MT4 will stay forever.

Why?

Hello,

I tried to convert indicator mql4 to mql5, i got some errors i couldn't fix it...please help me to solve this...

Thank you to all

nivas

Hi i am looking for one chart delete /clean object script for mt5 .thanks

please any one convert to mt5

can someone please help me to convert this to an mql4

still here looking for answers too