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We are excited to formally announce the launch of the improved Expression Assistant, with several features that make it easier and faster to write expressions.
Syntax highlighting
Colored text is way easier to read, and will help you notice if you forget a closing square-bracket or quotation mark.
- Green - Functions
- Pink - Data
- Orange - Numbers
- Blue - Text
Autocomplete
There is no need for you to remember (or type) the entire column name you wish to reference.
Whenever you type a [, the valid columns in your current context will be shown. You can navigate these with arrow keys or by scrolling. If you accidentally close the completions, you can reopen it by pressing Ctrl + Space.
Autocompletions even work for SELECT-like statements, and additionally can help you complete Table Names for functions that require them.
Function Guide
The arguments of the current function are displayed above the Expression Input, with the current argument highlighted.
In-Editor Documentation
Documentation is at your finger tips inside the Editor, saving you the time of having to navigate there yourself.
Minor Improvements
- Autoclosing of brackets
- Highlighting matching brackets
- Maintaining indentation when starting a new line
How This Works
Rather than compiling expressions on our server, we now compile as you type in your browser. We compile your expression into a syntax tree, which allows us to understand exactly where in your expression you are. The syntax tree alone allows us to provide colored text, when combined with our documentation we can provide the function guide, and when combined with your data schemas we can provide autocomplete.
Rollout
Several of these features have rolled out to all users over the past couple months. Autocomplete is currently rolled out to free users and will roll out to paid users next week.
We hope this makes it easier to write expressions, and look forward to continuing to improve the Expression writing experience.
Solved
1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION
Syntax highlighting, including dynamic parentheses matching, is thrown off in the presence of multi-byte characters. Here's an example with emojis. Although it doesn't appear in my screenshot, the cursor is just after CONCATENATE; you can see the open parenthesis is erroneously red as if it didn't have a matching close parenthesis. I imagine this is far more consequential for languages with relevant writing systems, such as Chinese.
(BTW, the same applies to text functions that count characters, such as LEFT in this example, which includes * 2 to compensate. That's not new, although I think I never reported it before.)
There's something off in the expression editor for the Broadcast Notifications' Deep Link property. Using the expression editor in the Expression Assistant I enter an expression, which then appears in the main app editor window. However, if I re-open the Expression Assistant, the expression editor is empty.
