Managing more complex tables

Tips&Tricks
1

As some of my tables get rather complex, I’m trying to arrange fields to get more ‘flow’ and ‘logic’ into them. A few suggestions that might be helpful:

  • Colors to help distinguish Column-Types (Like ‘yellow’ column for input-fields, ‘purple’ for formulas, ‘orange’ for ‘AI’ fields, etc.) → this could be user defined colors, but auto-applied by type.
  • Sorting - get all those relevant fields together (stock min/stock max/stock avg/stock deviation/.. ) by just sorting alphabetically (or some other sorting)
  • A way to add fields to groups (I’m thinking of : grouping all fields that require input / grouping all helper-fields required for a certain calculation, ect..). Make these groups easy to hide/show (+ allow a color?)
  • A way to track redundant fields?
  • A link-tree?
  • A ‘This field is used/referenced in these fields’ option?

hope this is useful…

David

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Thanks for sharing this @DavidCeulemans :raised_hands:

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Hey @DavidCeulemans, thanks again for the detailed suggestions :raising_hands:

A few thoughts on what you mentioned:

  1. Colors to distinguish column types
    We’re planning to introduce conditional cell coloring. It’s not exactly the same as coloring columns by type, but it should still help visually distinguish different kinds of data.
  2. Grouping fields / organizing structure
    We’re currently working on improvements around grouping, including things like collapsing groups and aggregations per group. While this is more row-focused, it’s a step toward better organization overall.
  3. Understanding relationships (link-tree / structure view)
    We have plans for something along these lines with an ER diagram / Entity–Relationship model, which should help visualize how tables and fields connect.
  4. Seeing where fields are used (dependencies)
    This is something we definitely agree is valuable, and it’s already tracked here: field dependency overview

Some of your ideas like field grouping and sorting sound interesting but could you share a bit more on how you’d expect them to work in practice?

4

Hi @olgatrykush ,

That certainly looks promising. Especially 3 and 4 might be very helpful.

Thanks for considering some of my ideas.

Field grouping - I tend to see groups a bit similar to folders or sections.
Personally, I would consider dividing my larger tabels into sections like:

  • Manual Input

  • Stock Calculations

  • Helper Fields

  • AI Fields

  • Dashboard Fields

  • Archive / Hidden Fields

Ideally, these groups could be collapsible, hideable, and optionally colored. This would be especially useful for tables with many technical/helper fields that are needed for formulas but not always relevant during normal or daily use.

It certainly would make complex tables easier to maintain, especially for databases with many formulas, lookups, automations, and AI fields.

Field/Column sorting

This might be best suited within these groups/sections.
A way to sort columns by name, field type, creation date, or custom category.
For example, if I have fields like:

  • Stock Minimum

  • Stock Maximum

  • Stock Average

  • Stock Deviation

I could quickly group them together by sorting alphabetically instead of manually dragging many columns around. I don’t see this particularly useful in large tables, but more in combination to the above field grouping.

Hope this helps.