Can't create a report: Species seen this on this day in this location OR that location

[Rick King]

I’d like to be able to list sightings on a certain date from a subset of locations, where I have sightings from multiple locations on the same day.

[Adam Winer]

This can be done already.

Create a report with "Or" Location is X "Or" Location is Y "And" Date is (date)

[Rick King]

Ok, it works, but it's not logical.

[Adam Winer]

How did you expect to build a report like this? Were you expecting to be able to add a list of locations directly?

[Rick King]

It's the first logical conjunction that's confusing. Your filter is:

species (if left blank then all species)

AND|OR

<something: location, date, etc.>

AND|OR

<something: location, date, etc.>

etc.

What would make sense to me is keeping the species selection (if any) separate.

species (if left blank then all species)

Filtered by:

<something: location, date, etc.>

AND|OR

<something: location, date, etc.>

etc.

I'm not sure what the assumption is about grouping when you have a sequence of ANDs and ORs, whether the ANDs group the ORs or vice versa.

[Adam Winer]

First, I don’t follow what you mean by “species selection”. There’s no “if left blank then all species” logic. The “Type a species name” is purely about quickly selecting a species within your report, and has no influence on what’s contained within the report.

As for grouping with ANDs and ORs, the manual is explicit that it does not matter:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/15m7XxJSeNGUSsEQpmnw4dMWW_BuoUnVYDQMLUBlL8Fw/pub#h.vtw8899xcmt

… and, for that matter, it gives an example of a report covering two locations with an “Or”.

My general assumption is that reports with complex groupings are likely to be extremely rare, and that a system where the ordering does matter is going to be very difficult to explain. This might have been a mistake, but it’s a judgement call.

[Rick King]

Ok, I get that. There's an idiosyncratic sort of interface that looks like it should follow more traditional rules. So it's pretty easy to get what I want.