Re: Table questions

[Michael <wuolong@gmail.com>]

On 18 Dec 2006, Carsten Dominik wrote:

> On Dec 14, 2006, at 17:19, Michael wrote:

> > 1. In table calculation, how to refer to a cell in a different column and
> >    different row?  Specifically, I want column 8 row 5 to be the ratio of
> >    column 7 row 5 and column 7 row 4.

> You cannot, at least currently.  I am not sure how well this would
> work, because the table editor makes it very easy to swap rows, columns,
> to add and delete columns, and such references would become invalid
> unless one would carefully track these changes. 

I agree that you probably don't want to exactly replace the full power of
Excel.  But this simple feature makes it possible to keep track of simple
data.  I won't mind having to redo the formula after row swapping etc.,
which I think won't happen so often for a given table anyway.

> Having said this, I do want to do a bit more in this direction, but
> this is nowhere near completion.

> > 2. I think the table minor mode would be a fantastic tool in editing tables
> >    in a LaTeX file. I wonder whether it is possible to let orgtbl recognize
> >    \begin{tabular}\end{tabular} and use & as column delimiter rather than |
> >    (also respect end of line \\)?

> Yes, I think it would and I have been thinking to make this possible.
> However, once I allow this, people will want to use \multicolumn, and
> this seems for me to be beyond the scope.

I think you can ignore the rows with multicolumn in it, which would satisfy
most people I imagine.

> Have you tried

>    M-x align-current RET

> in a LaTeX table?  It does wonders.

I'll try that.  

Thanks very much for all the hard work,

Michael