METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR VISUALLY INDICATING A SELECTION QUERY

A method and system for specifying a selection query for a collection of data items. The system allows a user to define various conditions (e.g., "Supervisor=Smith") that relate to the collection. A unique icon is then assigned to represent each condition. These icons can either be assigned automatically by the system or assigned by a user. When a selection query is to be specified, the system displays a selection query grid. The selection query grid contains a row for each possible combination of the defined conditions. Each possible combination is represented by displaying the icons for the conditions in that combination in the row. A user can then select which combinations should form the selection query by selecting rows of the selection query grid. The selection query is the logical-AND of each condition or logical inverse of each condition of a selected combination and the logical-OR of all the selected combinations. The system then uses this selection query to retrieve the data items from the collection.