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Different Colors for Different types in formula tool

Now that the formula tool has syntaxing and highlighting and autofilling, it would be great if it would color things differently depending on the datatype. Currently fields are blue and constants are green when I go to select them:

Capture.PNG

I think the constants can remain green, but then maybe have something like: strings = blue, numbers=red, dates=orange, blobs/spatials/bool/anything else=black (or any other colors that look good). Then the formula tool would also have similar colors. Currently my fields and constants both look purplish:

Capture.PNG

Instead, I think the colors should remain the same (ie. ALAE Reserve should be blue and the engine should be green) 

5 Comments
RachelW
Alteryx Alumni (Retired)
Status changed to: Under Review

@patrick_digan Thanks so much for the feedback on Formula. Consistency between the colors you see in the dropdown and colors you see in the expression editor is a great idea. I've passed this feedback along to our design team. 

 

We've been thinking more about how we distinguish between the different data types. Your suggestion of color coding the data types is definitely worth considering. Thanks for taking the time to share your ideas! 

SeanAdams
17 - Castor
17 - Castor

Great idea to differentiate - we may just need to be sensitive to the fact that 15% of all men are colour blind, so if we only use colour to differentiate that's going to leave out a lot of the user base.

 

Possible alternative would be the way that Tableau does it with specific data-type icons?

andrewdatakim
12 - Quasar
12 - Quasar

Could we use color blind appropriate colors for each of the groups? Also, what about adding the data type in the tooltip? 

DultonM
11 - Bolide

On the topic of coloring things in the Formula tool...what about color matching the parenthesis like is done in Excel (i.e. where the "(" and the ")" are the same color if they belong to the same pair and are colored differently from other pairs of parentheses):

 

Excel's Color-Matching Parentheses.PNG

 

Compared to Excel, I find it very difficult to keep track of the parentheses in the Alteryx Formula tool, especially when there are many layers of nested parentheses: 

 

Alteryx's Parentheses Coloring.PNG

 

I'm so spoiled by Excel's color-matching parenthesis that I often build parenthesis-heavy formulas in Excel and then copy the formula over to Alteryx. :\

RachelW
Alteryx Alumni (Retired)
Status changed to: Not Planned

This is a good idea. I'd like to look at how we treat data types throughout Designer, unfortunately it's not planned in the next year. We'll consider this when we look at data types over all.