bug: Row descriptor <...> leads outside table

[Mario Frasca <mario@anche.no>]

hi again,

I haven't found how to solve this, short of removing the evaluation of 
`user-error' from the org-table.el code, or stuffing my TBLFM line with 
field formulas.

a very simple use case: three columns: the date, a daily measurement, 
and a running 4-days average.

|  date | measure | running avg ||-------+---------+-------------|| 
01-27 |     604 | skipped     || 01-28 |     314 | skipped     || 01-29 
|     636 | skipped     || 01-30 |     305 | skipped     || 01-31 |     
760 | skipped     || 02-01 |     531 | skipped     || 02-02 |     331 | 
nil         || 02-03 |      77 | nil         || 02-04 |     621 | 
nil         || 02-05 |     406 | nil         || 02-06 |     621 | 
nil         || 02-07 |     975 | nil         || 02-08 |     252 | 
nil         || 02-09 |     794 | nil         || 02-10 |      36 | 
nil         |#+TBLFM: $3='(unless (> @# 7) "skipped") #+TBLFM: $3='(when 
(> @# 7) (/ (apply #'+ '(@-6$2..$2)) 7.0));N%0.2f #+TBLFM: $3='(/ (apply 
#'+ '(@-6$2..$2)) 
7.0);N%0.2f::@2$3='(string)::@3$3='(string)::@4$3='(string)::@5$3='(string)::@6$3='(string)::@7$3='(string)

the first TBLFM shows you which cells I'm skipping, that is, where I'm 
not applying the @-6 reference.  the status of the table results from 
evaluation of that TBLFM line.

the second TBLFM line skips all @-6 references, but still fails with the 
message

user-error: Row descriptor -6 leads outside table

the third TBLFM line "solves" the problem, in one of the ugliestests ways.

how would you people approach this?


On 29/06/2020 12:03, Mario Frasca wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I need some help understanding how to use org-mode/org-table for 
> references leading outside my table.
>
> I have a series of daily figures, and I am computing the series of 
> running sums.  column one is the daily data, column two is the running 
> sum of the preceding 14 values from column 1.
>
> http://ix.io/2qu7
>
> problem is the @-13$1 reference in the function for the second column: 
> it hits a software-generated "user-error: Row descriptor -13 leads 
> outside table".
>
> this happens even if the formula says (if (> @# 13) (apply '+ 
> '(@-13$1..$1)) 0), that is, even if the formula is not evaluated on 
> the cells where the reference does indeed lead out of the table.
>
> this happens around line 2809 of org-table.el, inside org-table--row-type
>
> I've tried to catch the user-error with a `condition-case', but even 
> there, the error seems to happen before evaluation.
>
> I've replaced the `(user-error)' function with a `nil', and it works 
> for me, but that's a very rough measure I'm afraid.
>