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I have a very simple table like this:

| A | B |  C |
|---+---+----|
| 1 | 2 | 15 |
| 1 | 2 | 32 |
| 1 | 2 | 81 |

I want to apply a formula that calculate the sum between A and B and insert the result just after the B column but before the C one. The formula is easy but…

#+TBLFM: $? = $1+$2

…I don't know what to put in place of $?.

How can I achieve that?

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2
  • Adding a column is a one-time operation that is best done through external means, not through a formula. While in column C, say M-x org-table-insert-column which inserts an empty third column, leaving the formula then as $3 = $1 + $2.
    – NickD
    Aug 1, 2021 at 0:59
  • I agree with @NickD. It would be helpful to know why you are trying to add one more column to the table. Thus, we would know whether this is a XY problem.
    – rdrg109
    Aug 9, 2021 at 4:24

1 Answer 1

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An elisp formula can do the trick :

  | A | B |   |  C |
  |---+---+---+----|
  | 1 | 2 | 3 | 15 |
  | 1 | 2 | 3 | 32 |
  | 1 | 2 | 3 | 81 |
  #+TBLFM: $4='(progn(org-table-analyze)(when (eq 3 org-table-current-ncol) (org-table-insert-column)) (+ $1 $2));N
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6
  • It doesn't work for me, it produces a weird result. Care to elaborate on what does this elisp formula do?
    – Nicryc
    Aug 1, 2021 at 10:19
  • The trouble with using a formula to do this, is that the next time you refresh the table, the formula is applied again (and again and again...) For non-idempotent operations, this is obviously going to cause problems. That's why I recommended that for such one-time operations, you do NOT use a formula (or if you do, you then delete the part of the formula that does that particular operation.
    – NickD
    Aug 1, 2021 at 13:15
  • It works the first time, but try doing C-c C-c on your formula a second time: what do you see?
    – NickD
    Aug 1, 2021 at 13:17
  • @Nicryc. Your question is certainly part of a much larger question, the context of which I do not know and which should be treated as such. My solution is kind of a joke of taking your question at face value. At home it works, but I will not use such a solution under any circumstances.
    – gigiair
    Aug 1, 2021 at 13:34
  • It's hard to show it here so I'm just gonna describe it. It creates two new columns ($4 and $5) and put the result of the first row in the $5 column and the result of the following rows in the $4 column. Besides it automatically change the beginning of my formula to $5=. I know this is some weird question but in fact my tables are completely re-generated each time I change some values in a bigger root table using the org-aggregate module.
    – Nicryc
    Aug 1, 2021 at 15:35

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