Definition Query GUI - How to work?

[BlakeMorrison]

I feel like I used to be able to reach this state of definition query via the defintion query GUI. Nowadays I have to type that as SQL. I cannot find a way to produce "X and (Y or Z)" without SQL. If I edit that clause in the GUI, it will break.

Can anyone enlighten me as to what I'm doing wrong if anything?

[BlakeMorrison · Accepted solution]

Ok, I've stumbled through this. There are a couple things I was missing/misunderstanding.

• The setting (cog icon) in the top right of the defintiion query allows changing what fields/values are displayed. Maybe default values changed here.
• The indentation is actually "grouping" as opposed to a form of visual parentheses which is how I was imagining it working. Grouping means more than one..... You can't do the indent thing unless you have multiple clauses selected. That's what I was missing.

[CalvinHarmin]

I wonder if there is a similar SQL gui editor like this from another software that is more obvious that could be used as an example of how this menu could be a little more user-friendly?

I also wish when using 'Not equal to' there was a checkbox to include (or Is Null) rather than making another duplicate line for that purpose. I have a lot of use cases where I'm specifying, essentially, "all values except this one" and I want that to include Nulls. If you don't specify that as an OR statement, Nulls won't be included. 

[AlfredBaldenweck]

If you'd like an improvement to the editor, I'd upvote this Idea: Consolidate Select by Attribute Expression Modes