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Question regarding how to handle large tables with many rows:

  1. Where should the delete option be? I see many examples placing the delete icon or text on the far-right of the row. Is this best practice? Is it always advisable to swap row delete to checkbox selection/batch delete?

  2. If a table row has multiple available actions such as [Edit | Publish | View History ] etc, should these items be grouped into a single "Actions" row item?

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    How often will users be deleting rows? Is this a common action that's not really a big deal (like email where it's just a move) or a rare/important action that causes a dialog confirmation, etc.?
    – J. Dimeo
    Commented Feb 25, 2015 at 19:50
  • It's a sometimes case. Users will want to sometimes delete a few things at a time, but it's not a frequent, everyday task.
    – Kimchi4Me
    Commented Feb 26, 2015 at 15:08
  • Is this a web app? If not, the delete option is conventionally the backspace key on the keyboard.
    – Kit Grose
    Commented Feb 27, 2015 at 1:59

3 Answers 3

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You can simple use "actions" button which opens on click all available action for specific row.

Example:

enter image description here

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    Isn't having Actions before the actual content inappropriate. I think, actions are taken only when the information is delivered that is why edit/delete/history are always at the extreme right end ( eye movement is always from left to the right ).
    – Guru Munishwar
    Commented Feb 26, 2015 at 11:10
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    Your first column should be the item in the table the user is most likely to want to scan their eyes down to find the right row. An actions column in that space hurts the table's usability.
    – Racheet
    Commented Feb 26, 2015 at 13:42
  • Should we use action button on far right side then? What about check-boxes. User can select multiply items and perform an action for selected items. Should the check-box position also be on the right side then?
    – hattori hanzo
    Commented Feb 26, 2015 at 14:38
  • This is interesting. What if you had an identifying column such as "Database Name" which would naturally be the left-most column in most cases, but you also had a "Status" column which could show if the database was up, down, had problems, etc. Would it make more sense to have the Status column or Database Name column as the left-most column?
    – Kimchi4Me
    Commented Feb 26, 2015 at 15:10
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why don't you just use check-boxes for deleting and arrows for actions, similar to this ->enter image description here

keep is as clean as possible and it does not take much space

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Where should the delete option be? I see many examples placing the delete icon or text on the far-right of the row. Is this best practice? Is it always advisable to swap row delete to checkbox selection/batch delete?

I believe the far right location is because you don't want user to accidentally click on delete.

It depends. For a really long (tall) table, try using a sticky table header so it's always viewable.

If a table row has multiple available actions such as [Edit | Publish | View History ] etc, should these items be grouped into a single "Actions" row item?

Again it depends. If you really want to use buttons then group them. Otherwise small 16px by 16px icons in one table cell could suffice for each action if there's space.

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