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I'm currently implementing a database querying tool, and am currently working on a section which would allow users to specify ORDER BY and Aggregate clauses. My biggest challenge has been to represent it in a neat format, while allowing users to add as many attributes as they like. What I've done so far is presented the results as a Tree, where users can add levels to the tree, representing new attributes.

Pressing the 'Add Attributes' button adds a new level in the tree. I'm not 100% satisfied with this approach, however I also tried a grid approach but preferred this due to the fact that users can keep adding as many attributes as they like.

Does it appear user-friendly, neat and visually pleasing? If not, what could be improved? Is there some other representation I could use?

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    I would suggest that you force the width of the leftmost dropdown to a common size, so that everything lines up neatly.
    – Ben Voigt
    Feb 22, 2013 at 23:15
  • I don't know your users, but in terms of complex DB querying, there's still a place for the command line interface. I do feel we often design GUIs to handle complex issues that, depending on the users, at times would be better handled via the command line.
    – DA01
    Feb 23, 2013 at 0:50

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Congratulations, you've invented TreeTable. Don't get me wrong, no sarcasm at all. The direction is right, but current implementation should be changed. TreeTable example:

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BTW, your task is not new, so there are a lot of other real-life examples:

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My biggest concern is flexibility. Naturally, there is no problem if you do not need to support some other constructions except "Attribute|Order|Function". If you do need -- free form editor can be build using something like this:

enter image description here

I do not suggest to go that way, just want you to know there is another way, which provides:

  • flexibility
  • visual hints
  • simplified validation
  • user-friendliness
  • etc

TreeTable is the best solution because you already have it implicitly.

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