How can I remove Expressions

[#1]

When I display the Expressions Overview, I see a number of expressions that have no associated sheet or object id, or are associated with objects that are no longer used.

How can I remove them?  There seem to be provisions for editing these expressions but not to delete them.

Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Much better

As I understand, the "Expression Overview" is not a major or even minor functionality in QlikView - it is just a more or less helpful utility, and rather recent at that.  I understand your desire for it to be perfect.  I don't mind, trust me.  But now it is what it is.

As for your comments:

1.

The "wrong" expressions - expression overview adds "=" at the beginning, hence it shows like "==" if the expression itself has one "=" already.

Why would it do this?  It is completely misleading to the user.  It is also not done consistently – many of the expressions show correctly.

There are no good answers to the questions of "why" type.  This is how it works.  If you have a chart expression sum(Amount), it is shown in the "Expression Overview" as "=sum(Amount)".  But you can use "=sum(Amount)" in chart as well, and it works the same way, but in the "Expression Overview", you'll see "==sum(Amount)" and as incorrect of course.  Misleading - I don't disagree with you, but this is what it shows.

I consider this a major bug in the product because users might take the faulty information and then edit the expression inappropriately causing further problems.

Maybe, but it hard to argue that there could be a major bug in a minor area.  In any case, I don't mind it to be fix, try to report it to QlikTech support.

2.

Expressions without sheet and object - it is usually variables' expressions.  What is a “variable expression”?  These items are not variable definitions – variable values do display properly in the Variable Overview window, as values for the variable.

Believe it or not, when I have a variable containing expression (that is, variable definition starts with "="), it is shown in the "Expression Overview" exactly this way - no sheet, no object ID.  Maybe there are other situations, I hope you'll tell us when you figure out.

3.

Expressions with object id and no sheet - I assume it is linked objects which exists on multiple sheets.  Your ‘assumption’ is wrong – these are not linked objects.

I wasn't sure but tested this later.  So, my assumption is correct.  Maybe there are other cases, you'll have to figure out as well.

In general, I perfectly understand you frustration with this utility.  Something to get used to, or to submit ideas and bugs to QlikTech.

If I ever need to go through the exercise of the expression cleanup, here what I'd do:

Open two instances of QV Desktop, with the same application.  Open "Expression Overview" in one instance, and perform cleanup in another.  Not perfect again, but at least don't need to close "Expression Overview" every time.  Especially if you have a ton of expressions and it takes forever to open.

Good luck,

Michael