How to extract tables names from an org file?

Question

I have an org file with headlines and subheadlines containing tables. Each table has a name (i.e. each table starts with a #+name: tablename header). I'd like to generate a list containing all tables names as strings. ("tablename-1" "tablename-2" ... "tablename-n").

For Example, parsing the given file filename.org:

* Level 1
** level 2 alpha
   #+name: alpha
   |--------+--------|
   | Letter | Number |
   |--------+--------|
   | A      |      1 |
   | B      |      2 |
   |--------+--------|
** Level 2 beta
   #+name: beta
   |--------+--------|
   | Letter | Number |
   |--------+--------|
   | C      |      3 |
   | D      |      4 |
   |--------+--------|
*** level 3
   #+name: l3
    |--------+--------|
    | Letter | Number |
    |--------+--------|
    | E      |      5 |
    | F      | 6      |
    |--------+--------|

Would produce the following list:

("alpha" "beta" "l3")

I have tried:

(let ((x (org-element-parse-buffer 'table))) 
  (org-element-map x 'table 
    (lambda (y) (org-element-property :name y))))

but it doesn't work...

Answer 1

But you are on the right track. The only mistake is that you are passing the wrong argument to org-element-parse-buffer (see its doc string with C-h f org-element-parse-buffer to see what arguments it takes). In this case, just call it without any arguments:

(org-element-map (org-element-parse-buffer) 'table (lambda (element) (org-element-property :name  element)))

will do it.