A system and method for providing a canonical query expression employable by a plurality of application tasks which may be invoked by a SAN management application avoids successive regeneration of extensive queries Each of the application tasks employs the canonical form of the same query, allowing multiple reports and actions to be invoked without reentry of the query by the user. In this manner, a user need not repeat the query entry for each invocation of a report or task. Rather, the canonical query form is provided to each application task for which a report or action is requested. Each of the application tasks, therefore, employs the canonical query expression. The canonical form defines a set of identifiable portions of a syntactical expression. The application tasks invoke some or all of the portions of the query expression derived from the initial syntax. Users or operators invoke the application tasks for providing a report, action, or other result.