When I have a column that results in some longer content, like:
Table.lookupRecords(Foo=$Foo).Name
I am unable to easily see the full cell content, as when I double click it shows the formula - and there is no tooltip on hover.
Only option is to make the column very wide but that’s awkward.
Another example (which I often need for debugging - if there is no better way?)
{
foo.Name: SUM(Bar.lookupRecords(foo=foo).Amount)
for foo in $Foo
}
It’s a good idea, and has come up before, but we haven’t thought up with a good way to offer both the formula and the preview.
For a reference point, Google Sheets offers something like it:
The tip-like blue text is the value, flattened into one line, and possibly truncated. They call it the “Formula Preview”, because as you type the formula, it shows a preview of the result. (Grist doesn’t really do that, though it evaluates parts of formulas while typing for the sake of auto-complete, and shows partial values in auto-complete.)
In Grist, we have a few wishes:
I could imagine different icons to open the different things, or a toggle to switch between them once opened, or showing both with options to collapse one or the other. But nothing stands out as clean and and intuitive.
Cc’ing @anais-grist for ideas. I know there are other improvements to the formula editor in the works, so we’ll need to consider this along with other wishes that affect its UI.
“It’s a good idea, and has come up before, but we haven’t thought up with a good way to offer both the formula and the preview.”
What happens when the user doesn´t have permission to edit the table structure?
If he clicks twice, will he see the content or the formula?
Personally, I think the best solution would be to always see the CONTENT, and if you want to edit the formula, you click a small edit icon on the top right corner of the cell/field. That icon not appearing when user doesn´t have permission to edit cell or table.
I wish for a formula editor that is not trying to jam everything into or near 1 cell. Would prefer to have a bigger window pop up with an IDE experience like debugging and variable inspector. Big wish!
Good news! Grist now has a floating formula editor as part of the AI Assistant update:
Self-hosted users: you can enable the new editor without an API key by following @paul-grist 's instructions here.
That’s great! But to be clear not helping with what I requested, as that was about viewing the resulting content of the cell, not the formula.