Re: row and col spaning in table?

[Carsten Dominik <carsten.dominik@gmail.com>]

On Aug 18, 2010, at 9:32 AM, Christian Moe wrote:

> Giovanni Ridolfi wrote:
>> David Hajage <dhajage@gmail.com> writes:
>>> and I was wondering if row and col spaning was possible?
>> Currently not. But, if this is your case, you should use the  
>> table.el package.
>
> Yes. Still, I'd tentatively suggest adding a feature to span Org- 
> table cells across rows and columns -- on *export* only. (Sorry if  
> this has been thought of before.)
>
> Why? For static tables with complex layout, the table.el integration
> is just what the doctor ordered and works really smoothly, and clearly
> one would not want to mess up the ease and speed of Org-tables by
> adding complexity like row and column spanning in the table editor.
>
> But what if, say, one is using the spreadsheet functionality,
> frequently updates the content for publication, and would like to
> e.g. span headers over multiple sub-headers? It seems less than
> optimal to maintain and update a separate Org table, then convert it
> to table.el and manually edit it every time one wants to publish,
> spanning the same cells each time.
>
> For this purpose, it would be nice to be able to define reusable cell
> spans the same way table formulas are entered, and with the same
> syntax. Here's an idea for how it might look:

Hi Christian,

I am willing to offer a hook for this post processing, buy you would  
have to write the code yourself.

- Carsten


>
> #+CAPTION: Foo and bar sales by region
> | Region | Sales |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |
> |        | Q1    |     |  Q2 |     |  Q3 |     |  Q4 |     |
> |        | foo   | bar | foo | bar | foo | bar | foo | bar |
> |--------+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----|
> | North  | 350   |  46 | 253 |  34 | 234 |  42 | 382 |  68 |
> | South  | 462   |  84 | 511 |  78 | 435 |  45 | 534 |  89 |
> #+TBLSPAN: A1..A3::A2..I1::B2..C2::D2..E2::F2..G2::H2..I2
>
> The exporter would read the TBLSPAN line to see what cells should be
> merged. It would concatenate the cell contents (if any), and add the
> appropriate HTML, LaTeX or DocBook formatting. [1]
>
> +--------+-------------------------------------------------+
> | Region |                      Sales                      |
> |        +-------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
> |        |      Q1     |    Q2     |    Q3     |    Q4     |
> |        +-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
> |        | foo   | bar | foo | bar | foo | bar | foo | bar |
> +--------+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
> | North  | 350   |  46 | 253 |  34 | 234 |  42 | 382 |  68 |
> +--------+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
> | South  | 462   |  84 | 511 |  78 | 435 |  45 | 534 |  89 |
> +--------+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
>
> Another example:
>
> |       | Col A | Col B |     |
> |-------+-------+-------+-----|
> | Row 1 | A1    | B1    | C1  |
> |       | A1b   | B1b   | C1b |
> | Row 2 | A2    | B2    | C2  |
> |       | A2b   | B2b   | C2b |
> #+TBLSPAN: @1$3..@1$4::@2$2..@3$2::@4$3..@5$4
>
> would result in output like:
>
> +---+-----+-----------+
> |   | A   | B         |
> +---+-----+-----+-----+
> | 1 | A1  | B1  | C1  |
> |   |     +-----+-----+
> |   | A1b | B1b | C1b |
> +---+-----+-----+-----+
> | 2 | A2  |   B2 C2   |
> |   +-----+           |
> |   | A2b |  B2b C2b  |
> +---+-----+-----------+
>
> [1] HTML: =rowspan= and =colspan= attributes of the =th= and =td=
>    elements. LaTeX: =\multicolumn= and =\multirow= commands. DocBook:
>    =namest=, =nameend= and =morerows= attributes of the =entry=
>    element.
>

- Carsten