[Field calc] recent group does not clear expression area

[pigreco]

If there is a function or expression in the expression area, the use of the recent group does not erase the previous expressions, but appends them.

Is it a correct behavior?

OSGeo4W64b - win 10 - QGIS 3.10

[gioman]

Arguably not a bug.

[elpaso]

Bug or not bug I don't care but this worth a deeper discussion.

For functions, variables and operators the current behavior is just fine, but I think that it is not the best UX for recent expressions: when selecting a Recent expression this is 100% of the times a complete expression that you have used as is in the past, it does not make much sense to insert it at the cursor position without clearing the input box (unless it's already empty of course).

On the other hand, having two different behaviors might be confusing for the users, even if the recent expressions are at the bottom of the groups and are really something on their own.

I see three possibilities here:

1. to implement an opt-in clear-before-paste behavior for recent expressions: the first time a recent expression is inserted a confirm dialog with a "[x] don't ask me again" will ask the user if she want to clear the input box before inserting recent expressions.
2. to add a broom icon to the toolbar to ease clearing the input box
3. do nothing :)

[Pedro-Murteira]

This is still an issue on QGIS 3.16.15 and 3.22.2. This issue should in my opinion be labeled as a Feature Request, and the possibilities mentioned by @elpaso should be considered.

[alexbruy]

As expression dialog now has a button to clear the input box we probably can close this.

[pigreco]

given the various comments, for me the issue can be closed