How to add dollar amounts in org mode?

Question

Given something like:

| $1.10 |   |
| $2.20 |   |
| $3.30 |   |
|       |   |

How do you add the amounts with $-sign? C-c + does not work for me.

Answer 1

Short answer: in the form that you want to do it, it isn't possible. Sigil (the dollar sign) is used in Org mode formulas for special purposes such as denoting a column or a name of a variable. However, you could use the same units, but expressed differently. For instance, you could use Calc to add currency units like this:

1. C-x * c - opens calculator.
2. 'usdRET - puts the word usd on stack.
3. u c answer prompts - creates a new fundamental unit named usd.
4. u p saves units for future use.
5. '1.13 usdRET - puts 1.13 usd on stack.
6. u c creates new units, when prompted for units name answer with eur.
7. u p save units again.

Alternatively, you could locate the Calc settings file (by examining M-:calc-settings-file, which is typically ~/.emacs.d/calc.el) and add:

(setq math-additional-units '(
  (eur "1.13 * usd" "Euro")
  (usd nil "United States Dollar")))

to this file. (You will only need to do this once.)

Now, you can write something like this in your Org file:

| 1.10 usd | 6.886 usd |
| 2.20 eur |           |
| 3.30 usd |           |
#+tblfm: @1$2=usimplify(vsum(@1$1..@3$1))