How can I add a +NAME: to an org-mode table created through emacs-lisp?

Question

I have the following code:

#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp :results value table
  (append '(("a" "b" "c" "d")
        hline
        (1 2 3 4)
        (5 6 7 8)))
#+END_SRC

When I run this source block, that gives me the expected result

#+RESULTS:
| a | b | c | d |
|---+---+---+---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |

What I want is to add a #+NAME: to the table so that I can reference it later, like this:

#+RESULTS:
#+NAME: my-table
| a | b | c | d |
|---+---+---+---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |

I have seen the example in the org mode manual in Section 15.6 that uses postprocessing, but that example uses sh for the processor and for various reasons I want to stick to emacs-lisp. I have tried various things but I can't get the postprocessing to work. The main problem seems to be that the postprocessing block has to be :results output, not :results value, but it is passed the table as a Lisp object, which I would have to format again as a string to prepend the #+NAME: string.

How can I get a #+NAME: added to my table using only emacs lisp?

Answer 1

The usual trick is to add the #+NAME: before the results, but for that to work well, you should also name the code block (which in turn will have the effect of labeling the results block, so babel can find it and replace it, rather than producing more results blocks):

#+NAME: my-table-producer
#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp :results value table
  (append '(("a" "b" "c" "d")
        hline
        (1 2 3 4)
        (5 6 7 8)))
#+END_SRC

#+NAME: my-table
#+RESULTS: my-table-producer
| a | b | c | d |
|---+---+---+---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |


#+begin_src python :var tbl=my-table :results output
print(tbl)
#+end_src

#+RESULTS:
: [[1, 2, 3, 4], [5, 6, 7, 8]]

As you can see, the #+NAME: before the #+RESULTS: (with nothing in between) is effective: the python code block was able to find the table and assign it to tbl.