Org table: aggregate each column (but not the header column)

Question

I would like to transpose this table example from Org as a spreadsheet system: a short introduction:

| Student  | Maths | Physics | Mean |
|----------+-------+---------+------|
| Bertrand |    13 |      09 |   11 |
| Henri    |    15 |      14 | 14.5 |
| Arnold   |    17 |      13 |   15 |
#+TBLFM: $4=vmean($2..$3)

This part is easy:

| Student | Bertrand | Henri | Arnold |
| Maths   |       13 |    15 |     17 |
| Physics |       09 |    14 |     13 |
| Total   |          |       |        |
#+TBLFM: @4=vmean(@2..@3)

But after a full recalculation (C-u C-c C-c), the text (Maths + Physics) / 2 is inserted:

| Student               | Bertrand | Henri | Arnold |
| Maths                 |       13 |    15 |     17 |
| Physics               |       09 |    14 |     13 |
| (Maths + Physics) / 2 |       11 |  14.5 |     15 |
#+TBLFM: @4=vmean(@2..@3)

How do I treat the first column as a header column? I think this would solve the problem.

Update 2014-01-07 6:26 PM EST: The two answers (by Juanco and wvxvw) work, but is there a way to solve this without changing the formula line at all? Is there a way to tell Org mode that the leftmost column is a header column?

Answer 1

You can specify the target cells for the formula to avoid overwriting the first column.

One way is the following:

#+TBLFM: @4$<<..@4$>=vmean(@2..@3)

Where $<< refers to the second column, and $> to the last.

Answer 2

You also need to specify the range on the left hand side:

| Student | Bertrand | Henri | Arnold |
|---------+----------+-------+--------|
| Maths   |       13 |    15 |     17 |
| Physics |       09 |    14 |     13 |
|---------+----------+-------+--------|
| Total   |       11 |  14.5 |     15 |
#+TBLFM: @4$2..@$4=vmean(@2..@3)

If I understood you correctly.

Answer 3

If I understand your questions & concerns correctly, you want to:

1. Transpose an org-mode table
2. Use the #+TBLFM: @4=vmean(@2..@3) formula but this
   overwrites the word Total with (Maths + Physics) / 2 which is unacceptable.
3. Leave the #+TBLFM: @4=vmean(@2..@3) line as-is but have org-mode ignore first column in the table when applying the formula.

There is feature that will instructs org-mode to ignore the first column, :rownames, or first row, :colnames, of a table when performing calculations. Unfortunately, you will need to pass the table into code block.

Simple example demonstrating :rownames and :colnames headers on a code block.

#+NAME: ex-rownames-colnames
|   | C |  D |
|---+---+----|
| A | 2 |  9 |
| B | 4 | 16 |

#+name: add-ten-to-table
#+header: :colnames yes 
#+header: :rownames yes
#+header: :var tab=ex-rownames-colnames
#+Begin_src python
   return [[val + 10 for val in row] for row in tab]
#+end_src

#+RESULTS: add-ten-to-table
|   |  C |  D |
|---+----+----|
| A | 12 | 19 |
| B | 14 | 26 |

Using this method to solve your total display issue is probably overkill.

The simplest solution is to modify #+TBLFM: @4=vmean(@2..@3) as Juanco or wvxvw suggested.

Hope that helped.