# Too many columns **URL:** \ **Category:** Ask for Help\ **Created:** [November 17, 2022, 9:07am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/too-many-columns/54339 "2022-11-17T09:07:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![erwblo](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/erwblo/32/75_2.png) [@erwblo](https://community.glideapps.com/u/erwblo)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2022, 9:07am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/too-many-columns/54339/1 "2022-11-17T09:07:58Z")
I love Glide and the way it has sheets and tables as we know it as the starting point for building apps, but everytime I build something with a lot of columns I think: it would be nice if there was a way to do things in a different / simpler way. I’m no UX designer but It feels that there are improvement options there. Hope so! ---
**Author:** ![Uzo](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/uzo/32/22639_2.png) [@Uzo](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Uzo)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2022, 9:09am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/too-many-columns/54339/2 "2022-11-17T09:09:41Z")
like what? I do many platforms and really advanced coding… Glide is still my favorite for great fast apps ---
**Author:** ![Uzo](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/uzo/32/22639_2.png) [@Uzo](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Uzo)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2022, 9:14am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/too-many-columns/54339/3 "2022-11-17T09:14:53Z")
in Glide … specially Apss you can do anything you want… CSS… JS… GS… GAS… HTML ---
**Author:** ![erwblo](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/erwblo/32/75_2.png) [@erwblo](https://community.glideapps.com/u/erwblo)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2022, 9:16am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/too-many-columns/54339/4 "2022-11-17T09:16:09Z")
Like I say, I’m no UX designer, I don’t have the solution but I feel the problem. And this is not about advanced or not, to me, it’s about data presentation. ---
**Author:** ![Uzo](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/uzo/32/22639_2.png) [@Uzo](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Uzo)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2022, 9:17am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/too-many-columns/54339/5 "2022-11-17T09:17:10Z")
just ask… and I or others will find a solution… ---
**Author:** ![erwblo](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/erwblo/32/75_2.png) [@erwblo](https://community.glideapps.com/u/erwblo)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2022, 9:18am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/too-many-columns/54339/6 "2022-11-17T09:18:31Z")
Thank you! ---
**Author:** ![Uzo](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/uzo/32/22639_2.png) [@Uzo](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Uzo)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2022, 9:21am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/too-many-columns/54339/7 "2022-11-17T09:21:12Z")
UI especially in Apps is almost unlimited… just try my Code BOOK or my calendar… click my image… there is no website that can do that… for free… both of these links were made using free Glide accounts ---
**Author:** ![erwblo](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/erwblo/32/75_2.png) [@erwblo](https://community.glideapps.com/u/erwblo)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2022, 9:24am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/too-many-columns/54339/8 "2022-11-17T09:24:22Z")
I agree about the front end, but I am talking about the back end. The data editor. When you end up with tens of columns that look the same and as important as eachother. ---
**Author:** ![Uzo](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/uzo/32/22639_2.png) [@Uzo](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Uzo)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2022, 9:27am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/too-many-columns/54339/9 "2022-11-17T09:27:06Z")
wow… have you tried GAS? I have thousands of lines of code to do just a few elements in Glide… I know is much faster execution and millions of times more possibilities than Glide… but… I can do the pp in few hours and collect money ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Murphy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/darren_murphy/32/47326_2.png) [@Darren\_Murphy](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Darren_Murphy)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2022, 9:29am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/too-many-columns/54339/10 "2022-11-17T09:29:21Z")
> [@erwblo](#): > > I agree about the front end, but I am talking about the back end. The data editor. When you end up with tens of columns that look the same and as important as eachother. Are you using [Column Grouping](https://www.glideapps.com/docs/guides/core/introduction-to-the-data-editor#column-grouping)? I find that helps a lot to keep things organised in the Data Editor. ---
**Author:** ![Uzo](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/uzo/32/22639_2.png) [@Uzo](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Uzo)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2022, 9:30am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/too-many-columns/54339/11 "2022-11-17T09:30:49Z")
i just wanna say… editor is not like the code editor in google… but… we don’t need to create thousands. lines of code to do simple tasks ---
**Author:** ![erwblo](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/erwblo/32/75_2.png) [@erwblo](https://community.glideapps.com/u/erwblo)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2022, 9:31am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/too-many-columns/54339/12 "2022-11-17T09:31:12Z")
We are both on the other side of the spectrum. You are a technical man that uses no code to do things faster and still uses code to do the extras. I am a non-technical person that loves Glide but thinks it can (always) be simpler and clearer. We both may be right 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Uzo](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/uzo/32/22639_2.png) [@Uzo](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Uzo)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2022, 9:32am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/too-many-columns/54339/13 "2022-11-17T09:32:44Z")
no… from my end … Glide is doing an excellent job to put together so many factors… it blows my mind, that they even try ---
**Author:** ![erwblo](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/erwblo/32/75_2.png) [@erwblo](https://community.glideapps.com/u/erwblo)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2022, 9:36am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/too-many-columns/54339/14 "2022-11-17T09:36:22Z")
Even good things have room for improvement. ---
**Author:** ![Uzo](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/uzo/32/22639_2.png) [@Uzo](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Uzo)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2022, 9:39am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/too-many-columns/54339/15 "2022-11-17T09:39:26Z")
I know … today we have so many systems that can do things… these systems took years to develop and a humongous amount of $… platform like Glide is one of the tops for sure… and for a guy like me… I just can’t believe is real… i have a huge respect for Glide, but I know I am their biggest headache lol ---
**Author:** ![erwblo](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/erwblo/32/75_2.png) [@erwblo](https://community.glideapps.com/u/erwblo)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2022, 9:44am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/too-many-columns/54339/16 "2022-11-17T09:44:07Z")
That’s what I was thinking 😉 I only think something can be better and the man that’s criticizing Glide so often becomes their biggest defender 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Uzo](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/uzo/32/22639_2.png) [@Uzo](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Uzo)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2022, 9:46am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/too-many-columns/54339/17 "2022-11-17T09:46:53Z")
yes… I do… my business depends on Glide in 60%… and Glide gets their $ from my customers… so it is very circular dependency situation lol ---
**Author:** ![nathanaelb](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/nathanaelb/32/43079_2.png) [@nathanaelb](https://community.glideapps.com/u/nathanaelb)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2022, 9:52am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/too-many-columns/54339/18 "2022-11-17T09:52:17Z")
You seem to always have good intentions and you bring so much to Glide and the community of fellow Gliders. Hey, thanks to you I might even start doing some Google AppScript someday. (But don’t hold your breath : ) ---
**Author:** ![Uzo](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/uzo/32/22639_2.png) [@Uzo](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Uzo)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2022, 9:54am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/too-many-columns/54339/19 "2022-11-17T09:54:32Z")
I… do… but sometimes it looks bad because of my English… or protecting my business… ---
**Author:** ![nathanaelb](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/nathanaelb/32/43079_2.png) [@nathanaelb](https://community.glideapps.com/u/nathanaelb)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2022, 11:35am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/too-many-columns/54339/20 "2022-11-17T11:35:35Z")
@erwblo If you are talking about the design/presentation of your data tables, I’m a little like you, I get uncomfortable when tables get messy. Things I try to keep in mind: - You know how in Excel, you can have a formula in one column, then another formula based on the output of the first in the next column, and so on 100 times? 100 columns. In Excel though, you can “merge” all of those formulas into one column with the onion method: you put one formula into the other, then into the other, and so on 100 times. Monster formula. One single column, it’s “clean”. We just can’t do that in Glide, it’s one computation per column. - But, big but: boy is that monster formula difficult to work with, maintain, audit. Having separate columns is, in a way, the clean version. Maybe not visually because it all spreads out, but all the columns/variables are not intertwined with one another in our tables in Glide. That feels good. - So to “merge” things, as Darren suggested, grouping columns is the way to go. Really, reminding myself that it’s one variable/computation/piece of data per column makes me feel better. Grouping columns by feature built is usually how I do now. - I also try to imagine how it would be in the coding world. I’m like you, I’ve never coded. But I imagine that coding create variables all over the place to store data. Some long term variable, some short term variables (columns in our working tables). Each variable in coding is probably a column to us in Glide. I’m willing to bet managing those variables in coding gets messy, that duplicate variables appear all over the place if the code is not clean, not maintained properly. So if it’s messy in the coding world, I find it reassuring that the same might happen in our visual coding world as well: tons of variables, tons of columns, same same. - Remember that “Hold my beer” moment where Jeff solved a problem in one math column where it took Darren 40 columns? When building new features, I keep that moment in mind and try to visualize how I somehow could simplify things. I often find myself thinking to myself “What would Jeff do?” Then quickly thereafter “What would \_\_\_\_\_ do?” (the Darrens come to mind, Bob, Thinh, Uzo, Lucas, Marco and Vincent, etc.) If you listen carefully sometimes you can almost hear what they would say : ) - There was a discussion a few weeks ago about if a table gets too big, is it good practice to split that table? I’m not a fan of splitting tables, but Gvalero commented that in the coding world, database normalization calls for more tables with fewer columns rather than fewer tables with less columns. I don’t know. But I keep in mind that comment. Not much practical advice here, mostly the way in seeing things, but I hope it helps. [Next page](https://community.glideapps.com/t/too-many-columns/54339.md?page=2)