The following answer states, that one must have all recalculating formulas in one #+TBLFM line: https://emacs.stackexchange.com/a/10946/10090. Indeed, when I try the following formulas only the first is recalculated automatically:

|   | Runde | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | Resultat |          % |
| ! | name  |   |   |   |   |   result | percentage |
| # | Alice | 1 | 1 | 0 |   |        2 |      66.67 |
| # | Bob   | 0 | 0 | 1 |   |        1 |      33.33 |
#+TBLFM: $7='(+ $<<<..$>>>);N
#+TBLFM: $8='(format "%2.2f" (* (/ 100 (float (+ @3$result..@4$result))) $result));N

When I put them both in one #+TBLFM line as in the following example, it will recalculate both formulas as intended.

#+TBLFM: $7='(+ $<<<..$>>>);N::$8='(format "%2.2f" (* (/ 100 (float (+ @3$result..@4$result))) $result));N

Is there a way to change this, so that it considers the first #+TBLFM line first, then the second, then the third, and so on? As I can already have multiple #+TBLFM lines, this would seem natural to me. The current behavior caused me some headache not understanding "why my second formula worked only sometimes".


As of org-mode 9 you can only do this manually: Place the cursor on the respective #+tblfm: lines and press C-c C-c. Here's the corresponding manual section, which is telling you that org considers only the first #+tblfm: line when otherwise updating the table formulas.

When the amount of formulas is getting too cumbersome to edit the #+tblfm: line itself please try the "formula editor" with C-c ' to edit all the formulas line by line.

  • 1
    That's what I feared. I did not realize however, that the formulas would be on separate lines in the formula editor! So that enables me to still edit them in a readable + manageable way even if there are many. Thanks for mentioning that they will be line by line in the formula editor. – Zelphir Kaltstahl Jul 15 '18 at 15:32

Everything is possible since you can arbitrarily modify a buffer temporarily before applying a command with cmdbufmod from the answer to the question about a single tblfm for multiple org tables.

The following code defines an :around advice org-table-multi-tblfm for org-table-recalculate that joins successive #+TBLFM:-lines before running org-table-recalculate.

There is an exception: if point is placed at a TBLFM:-line only that formula is evaluated and if point is placed behind the last vertical line | only the first TBLFM:-line is executed. That means you must really put point in the table to get the effect of the around advice.

(defun cmdbufmod-prepare (bufmod-list &optional start bound)
  "Prepare buffer for `cmdbufmod' with modifications BUFMOD-LIST.
See `cmdbufmod' for the format of BUFMOD-LIST.
If START is a buffer position the search for the regular expressions in BUFMOD-LIST
starts there. Otherwise it starts at `point-min'.
Optional BOUND limits the search.
Return the list of original text sections.
Each text section is a cons of an insertion marker and the old text
that needs to be restored there."
  (unless start (setq start (point-min)))
  (let (original-list)
      (dolist (bufmod bufmod-list)
    (let ((place (car bufmod))
          (newtext (cdr bufmod)))
      (goto-char start)
      (while (if (functionp place)
               (funcall place bound)
              (re-search-forward place bound t))
        (setq original-list
          (cons (cons (set-marker (make-marker) (match-beginning 0))
                  (match-string 0))
        (replace-match (propertize (if (functionp newtext)
                       (funcall newtext)
                       'cmdbufmod t 'rear-nonsticky '(cmdbufmod)))))))

(defun cmdbufmod-cleanup (original-list)
  "Restore original text sections from ORIGINAL-LIST.
See the return value of `cmdbufmod-prepare' for the structure of ORIGINAL-LIST."
  (cl-loop for interval being the intervals property 'cmdbufmod
       if (get-text-property (car interval) 'cmdbufmod)
       do (delete-region (car interval) (cdr interval)))
  (cl-loop for original in original-list do
       (goto-char (car original))
       (insert (cdr original))))

(defun cmdbufmod (bufmod-list fun &rest args)
  "After applying BUFMOD-LIST to current buffer run FUN with ARGS like `apply'.
BUFMOD is a list of buffer modifications. Each buffer modification
is a cons \(PLACE . NEWTEXT).
PLACE can be a regular expression or a function.
If PLACE is a function it should search for the next place to be replaced
starting at point. It gets the search bound as an argument,
should set match-data like `re-search-forward',
and return non-nil if a match is found.
If PLACE is a regular expression it is treated like the function
\(lambda () (re-search-forward PLACE nil t))

NEWTEXT can be a replacement string or a function.
A function should return the string for `replace-match'."
  (let (original-list)
            (setq original-list (cmdbufmod-prepare bufmod-list)))
          (apply fun args))
      (save-excursion (cmdbufmod-cleanup original-list)))))

(defconst org-table-multi-tblfm-re "[[:space:]]*#\\+TBLFM:"
  "Regular expression identifying \"#+TBLFM:\" at the beginning of lines.
Don't include a leading carret here!")

(defun org-table-multi-tblfm-search (&optional bound)
  "Search for next \"#\\+TBLFM:\"-line that is preceded by another such line.
If BOUND is non-nil search stops there or at `point-max' otherwise.
The match-data is set to the match of \"[[:space:]]*\n[[:space:]]*#\\+TBLFM:[[:\" at the beginning of line."
  (interactive) ;; for testing
  (let ((re (concat "[[:space:]]*\n" org-table-multi-tblfm-re "[[:space:]]*"))
    (while (and (setq found (re-search-forward re bound t))
                   (forward-line -1)
                   (looking-at-p org-table-multi-tblfm-re)))))

(defun org-table-multi-tblfm (oldfun &rest args)
  "Replace buffer local table formulas when calling OLDFUN with ARGS."
  (if (looking-at-p (concat "[[:space:]]*\n" org-table-multi-tblfm-re))
      (apply oldfun args)
    (cmdbufmod '((org-table-multi-tblfm-search . "::")) oldfun args)))

(advice-add 'org-table-recalculate :around #'org-table-multi-tblfm)
  • I have way too little elisp + Emacs internals knowledge to write up something like this currently, but this does look interesting! – Zelphir Kaltstahl Jul 17 '18 at 14:09
  • @Zelphir You do not need to write anything up. You can just copy the stuff into your init file, restart Emacs, and use org-table-recalculate as you are used to it. All #+TBLFM: lines will be evaluated at org-table-recalculate. – Tobias Jul 17 '18 at 17:26

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