The Expression Editor contains several productivity tools to make it easier to write and manage expressions. Many of these are accessed by right-clicking in the Editing Expression tab and using the context menu that appears.
The options under the Visualise sub-menu enable you to view the selected parts of the expression formatted using CSV, XML, JSON, or plain Text. Selecting one of these options will open a new dialog showing the data in the specified format.
Visualising a CSV list in the expression editor.
From this context menu you can access a number of additional tools by right-clicking and selecting the Advanced sub-menu, which contains the following options:
- Make Uppercase/Make Lowercase - Transforms the selected text into all uppercase or lowercase lettering.
- View White Space - Toggles a mode that displays all whitespace in the expression by showing symbols for blank spaces and line breaks. These symbols are only for your reference and are not actually part of the expression.
- Word Wrap - Toggles whether lines whose length extends beyond the edges of the editor will be split to a new line to fit the available window space. If wrapping is not used, you can use the scroll bar at the bottom of the window to view the full row. Using word wrap will not affect your expression and is only intended to improve visibility when working with long rows.
- Comment Selection/Uncomment Selection - Applies a Comment to one or more selected lines, which will exclude them from executing when the expression runs. This can be used to add read-only information to yourself and other users working on the expression, or to temporarily exclude code from the expression.
- Increase Line Indent/Decrease Line Indent - Applies or decreases indentation from the selected rows.
You can also add Bookmarks to individual lines within the editor. These make it easier to place markers at different points in an expression and make it easier to navigate between these sections.
Another way to improve readability of the expression is to use the Outlining options to create collapsible blocks within the expression. When a section has been outlined, it will be identifiable as a noticed line in the margin.
Two outlined sections in an expression, one collapsed and one expanded.
The Outlining sub-menu contains the following options:
- Outline Selection - Applies outlining to the currently selected rows.
- Remove Outline - Removes the outlining from the currently selected rows.
- Toggle All Outlining - Toggles whether all outlines in the current expression are expanded or collapsed.
- Stop Outlining - Removes all outlining from the expression.
In addition to the advanced options, the expression editor also provides a number of methods for searching the current expression. Refer to the following topics for more information on these features:
| Option | Description | Further Reading |
|---|---|---|
| Find and Replace | Locate specific text within your markup and replace it with other text. | Using Find and Replace |
| Incremental Search | Search for text in the editor without having to search for specified terms in a separate dialog. | Using Incremental Search |
| Go To Line | Quickly move your cursor to a specific line of markup. | Using Go To Line |