Re: Bug: named columns in tables not working if name contains "_"

[Nick Dokos <nicholas.dokos@hp.com>]

Carsten Dominik <carsten.dominik@gmail.com> wrote:

> 
> On Aug 23, 2011, at 3:53 PM, Nick Dokos wrote:
> 
> > András Major <andras.g.major@gmail.com> wrote:
> > 
> > 
> >> Yet another one I just stumbled across: if I create a table and use
> >> "!" in the first column to assign names to the columns, I can only
> >> reference those columns by name in #+TBLFM: if the names don't contain
> >> a "_" character.  This isn't mentioned in the docs and shouldn't be
> >> so, IMHO.  I haven't checked for other common characters that are
> >> prohibited, but the "_" bites me quite a bit.
> >> 
> > 
> > Try adding an underscore to the regexp on line 2179 of org-table.el -
> > something like this (untested):
> > 
> >          ...
> > 	  (if (string-match "^[a-zA-Z][a-zA-Z0-9_]*$" name)
> > 	      (push (cons name (int-to-string cnt)) org-table-column-names))))
> > 
> > 
> > The only characters permitted are alphanumerics. That can probably be
> > easily relaxed.
> 
> Hi Nick, I don't think it can be easily relaxed.  Many other characters are
> operators in Calc and would lead to confusion.
> 

So add more syntax: formulas can use {this+is-a*/strange\@name}.

OK, ok - just kidding.

Thanks,
Nick

PS. This is a paraphrase of the indirection principle: Any problem can
    be solved by adding yet another layer of syntax...