Allow Currency Symbols and Grouping Commas in Table Numbers

Allow Currency Symbols and Grouping Commas in Table Numbers

[Daniel E. Doherty]

I often use org table to perform calculations and export those tables
to LaTeX documents.

One thing I always wished I could do with org tables is get it to
allow numbers to be decorated with currency symbols, the dollar, euro,
yen, etc., as well as grouping commas so that the tables are more
suitable for presentation.

I can see from the code that there is a function,
org-table--number-for-summing, that converts text into numbers for
summing, and it would seem it could strip out leading or trailing
currency symbols as well as grouping commas before submitting numbers
to calc for calculation.

Consider this a feature request.  I think it would be a very popular
enhancement to org.

Regards,

--
====================================================
Daniel E. Doherty
Law Offices of Daniel E. Doherty
7300 W. 110th Street, Suite 930
Overland Park, KS 66210
913.338.7182 (Phone)
913.338.7164 (FAX)
ded@ddoherty.net

Re: Allow Currency Symbols and Grouping Commas in Table Numbers

[Ihor Radchenko]

"Daniel E. Doherty" <ded@ddoherty.net> writes:

> I often use org table to perform calculations and export those tables
> to LaTeX documents.
>
> One thing I always wished I could do with org tables is get it to
> allow numbers to be decorated with currency symbols, the dollar, euro,
> yen, etc., as well as grouping commas so that the tables are more
> suitable for presentation.

You can, for example, do

| 1 USD | 2 USD | 4 USD | 7 USD |
#+tblfm: $4=vsum($1..$3)

Emacs calc is able to work with arbitrary ascii symbols or even units.
However, calc does not appear work with unicode. If Emacs calc were to
support unicode, it would automatically work in Org.

Also, you can

enable latex in calc via
(setq org-calc-default-modes
  '(calc-internal-prec 12
		       calc-float-format  (float 8)
		       calc-angle-mode    deg
		       calc-prefer-frac   nil
		       calc-symbolic-mode nil
                       calc-language latex ;; <--- this is new compared to default
		       calc-date-format (YYYY "-" MM "-" DD " " Www (" " hh ":" mm))
		       calc-display-working-message t))

Then, the following will work

| \dollar1 | \dollar2 | \dollar3 | 6 \dollar |
#+tblfm: $4=vsum($1..$3)

Best,
Ihor

Re: Allow Currency Symbols and Grouping Commas in Table Numbers

[Eric S Fraga]

On Friday, 27 May 2022 at 16:22, Ihor Radchenko wrote:
> However, calc does not appear work with unicode. 

Are you sure?  This works just fine for me with embedded Calc:


--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
n := 100

a := 0

b := 1.0

δx := (b - a) / n => 0.01

i := 15

xi := a + δx i => 0.15
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

Note use of δ.  I use Greek characters all the time in my Calc formulas.

If it works in embedded Calc, it should work with the rest of Calc?

-- 
: Eric S Fraga, with org release_9.5.3-511-g8e69ad in Emacs 29.0.50

Re: Allow Currency Symbols and Grouping Commas in Table Numbers

[Ihor Radchenko]

Eric S Fraga <e.fraga@ucl.ac.uk> writes:

> On Friday, 27 May 2022 at 16:22, Ihor Radchenko wrote:
>> However, calc does not appear work with unicode. 
>
> Are you sure?  This works just fine for me with embedded Calc:
> ...
> δx := (b - a) / n => 0.01
> ...
> Note use of δ.  I use Greek characters all the time in my Calc formulas.
>
> If it works in embedded Calc, it should work with the rest of Calc?

You are right. However, non-letter symbols do not work. Try, € or ☺.

I tried the following:

1. M-x calc

2. ' C-x 8 <RET> small greek delta <RET> + 1 <RET>
3. Works
4. ' C-x 8 <RET> EURO SIGN <RET> + 1 <RET>
5. Error

Best,
Ihor

Re: Allow Currency Symbols and Grouping Commas in Table Numbers

[Eric S Fraga]

On Friday, 27 May 2022 at 19:17, Ihor Radchenko wrote:
> You are right. However, non-letter symbols do not work. Try, € or ☺️.

Interesting.  Seems rather strange but definitely the case. :-( I guess
I've only ever used Greek symbols if not ASCII.

-- 
: Eric S Fraga, with org release_9.5.3-511-g8e69ad in Emacs 29.0.50

Re: Allow Currency Symbols and Grouping Commas in Table Numbers

[Daniel E. Doherty]

On Fri, May 27 2022, Ihor Radchenko wrote:

Ihor, thanks for your thoughts, but this does not solve my problem.

Here is an sample org table that exemplifies the problem:

==================================================
#+begin_SRC emacs-lisp
  (setq org-calc-default-modes
    '(calc-internal-prec 12
             calc-float-format  (float 8)
             calc-angle-mode    deg
             calc-prefer-frac   nil
             calc-symbolic-mode nil
             calc-language latex ;; <--- this is new compared to default
             calc-date-format (YYYY "-" MM "-" DD " " Www (" " hh ":" mm))
             calc-display-working-message t))
#+end_SRC

#+RESULTS:
| calc-internal-prec | 12 | calc-float-format | (float 8) | calc-angle-mode | deg | calc-prefer-frac | nil | calc-symbolic-mode | nil | calc-language | latex | calc-date-format | (YYYY - MM - DD   Www (  hh : mm)) | calc-display-working-message | t |


| Description  | Amount          |
|--------------+-----------------|
| Mortage      | $125,000.26     |
| Credit Cards | 6,325.00        |
| Auto Loan    | 14,853.00       |
|--------------+-----------------|
| Total        | :=vsum(@I..@II) |
#+TBLFM: @5$2=vsum(@I..@II)

-> Error: Invalid field specifier "$125"

| Description  |    Amount |
|--------------+-----------|
| Mortage      | 125000.26 |
| Credit Cards |   6325.00 |
| Auto Loan    |  14853.00 |
|--------------+-----------|
| Total        | 146178.26 |
#+TBLFM: @5$2=vsum(@I..@II)


| Description  | Amount     |
|--------------+------------|
| Mortage      | 125,000.26 |
| Credit Cards | 6,325.00   |
| Auto Loan    | 14,853.00  |
|--------------+------------|
| Total        | 1323.26    |
#+TBLFM: @5$2=vsum(@I..@II)

Note that the total is wrong.


| Description  | Amount                     |
|--------------+----------------------------|
| Mortage      | \dollar 125000.26          |
| Credit Cards | 6325.00                    |
| Auto Loan    | 14853.00                   |
|--------------+----------------------------|
| Total        | 125000.26 \dollar + 21178. |
#+TBLFM: @5$2=vsum(@I..@II)

Total is still wrong.
============================================
>
> You can, for example, do
>
> | 1 USD | 2 USD | 4 USD | 7 USD |
>
> #+tblfm: $4=vsum($1..$3)
>
> Emacs calc is able to work with arbitrary ascii symbols or even units.
> However, calc does not appear work with unicode. If Emacs calc were to
> support unicode, it would automatically work in Org.
>
> Also, you can
>
> enable latex in calc via
> (setq org-calc-default-modes
>   '(calc-internal-prec 12
> 		       calc-float-format  (float 8)
> 		       calc-angle-mode    deg
> 		       calc-prefer-frac   nil
> 		       calc-symbolic-mode nil
>                        calc-language latex ;; <--- this is new compared to default
> 		       calc-date-format (YYYY "-" MM "-" DD " " Www (" " hh ":" mm))
> 		       calc-display-working-message t))
>

But it requires the \dollar on every entry.  The convention if
financial table is to include the currency symbol only on the first
item.

> Then, the following will work
>
> | \dollar1 | \dollar2 | \dollar3 | 6 \dollar |
>
> #+tblfm: $4=vsum($1..$3)

Whatever calc is able to handle, calc is not getting the entries
interpreted as numbers, or at least not the numbers that a human would
understand.

My elisp skills are limited, but it seems that org mode could, as a
matter of course, strip commas and currency symbols from the numbers
before delivering them to calc, and, if the user wants add back the
grouping commas and currency symbol with a format specifier in the
result.

Also, it would be better if the regular expression for recognizing
numbers allowed grouping commas and currency symbols to be included by
default so that financial-type numbers get right-aligned by default.

>
> Best,
> Ihor


--
====================================================
Daniel E. Doherty
Law Offices of Daniel E. Doherty
7300 W. 110th Street, Suite 930
Overland Park, KS 66210
913.338.7182 (Phone)
913.338.7164 (FAX)
ded@ddoherty.net

Re: Allow Currency Symbols and Grouping Commas in Table Numbers

[Ihor Radchenko]

"Daniel E. Doherty" <ded@ddoherty.net> writes:

> | Description  | Amount     |
> |--------------+------------|
> | Mortage      | 125,000.26 |
> | Credit Cards | 6,325.00   |
> | Auto Loan    | 14,853.00  |
> |--------------+------------|
> | Total        | 1323.26    |
> #+TBLFM: @5$2=vsum(@I..@II)
>
> Note that the total is wrong.

Well. This is also a caveat from calc, unfortunately.

7.7.2 Grouping Digits
   Please note that grouped numbers will not generally be parsed
correctly if re-read in textual form, say by the use of ‘C-x * y’ and
‘C-x * g’.  (*Note Kill and Yank::, for details on these commands.)  One
exception is the ‘\,’ separator, which doesn’t interfere with parsing
because it is ignored by TeX language mode.

So, you can instead do

| Description  | Amount      |
|--------------+-------------|
| Mortage      | 125\,000.26 |
| Credit Cards | 6\,325.00   |
| Auto Loan    | 14\,853.00  |
|--------------+-------------|
| Total        | 146178.26   |
#+TBLFM: @5$2=vsum(@I..@II)

Or with

#+begin_SRC emacs-lisp
(setq org-calc-default-modes
      '( calc-internal-prec 12
	 calc-float-format  (float 8)
	 calc-angle-mode    deg
	 calc-prefer-frac   nil
	 calc-symbolic-mode nil
	 calc-language latex ;; <--- this is new compared to default, enable latex symbols
	 calc-group-digits t ;; <--- group digits in the results
	 calc-group-char "\\,"
	 calc-date-format (YYYY "-" MM "-" DD " " Www (" " hh ":" mm))
	 calc-display-working-message t))
#+end_SRC

| Description  | Amount      |
|--------------+-------------|
| Mortage      | 125\,000.26 |
| Credit Cards | 6\,325.00   |
| Auto Loan    | 14\,853.00  |
|--------------+-------------|
| Total        | 146\,178.26 |
#+TBLFM: @5$2=vsum(@I..@II)

> | Description  | Amount                     |
> |--------------+----------------------------|
> | Mortage      | \dollar 125000.26          |
> | Credit Cards | 6325.00                    |
> | Auto Loan    | 14853.00                   |
> |--------------+----------------------------|
> | Total        | 125000.26 \dollar + 21178. |
> #+TBLFM: @5$2=vsum(@I..@II)
>
> Total is still wrong.

You need 

| Description  | Amount                     |
|--------------+----------------------------|
| Mortage      | \dollar 125000.26          |
| Credit Cards | \dollar 6325.00            |
| Auto Loan    | \dollar 14853.00           |
|--------------+----------------------------|
| Total        | 146178.26 \dollar          |
#+TBLFM: @5$2=vsum(@I..@II)


Best,
Ihor

Re: Allow Currency Symbols and Grouping Commas in Table Numbers

[Daniel E. Doherty]

Ihor,

Again, thanks for your thoughts.  All, however, ruin the look of the
tables.  Could you, perhaps, point me to where in the vast org code,
strings are converted to numbers in preparation for sending to calc?

I could then play with overriding the function and come up with a
work-around.

Regards,

On Fri, May 27 2022, Ihor Radchenko wrote:

> "Daniel E. Doherty" <ded@ddoherty.net> writes:
>
>> | Description  | Amount     |
>> |--------------+------------|
>> | Mortage      | 125,000.26 |
>> | Credit Cards | 6,325.00   |
>> | Auto Loan    | 14,853.00  |
>> |--------------+------------|
>> | Total        | 1323.26    |
>> #+TBLFM: @5$2=vsum(@I..@II)
>>
>> Note that the total is wrong.
>
> Well. This is also a caveat from calc, unfortunately.
>
> 7.7.2 Grouping Digits
>    Please note that grouped numbers will not generally be parsed
> correctly if re-read in textual form, say by the use of ‘C-x * y’ and
> ‘C-x * g’.  (*Note Kill and Yank::, for details on these commands.)  One
> exception is the ‘\,’ separator, which doesn’t interfere with parsing
> because it is ignored by TeX language mode.
>
> So, you can instead do
>
> | Description  | Amount      |
> |--------------+-------------|
> | Mortage      | 125\,000.26 |
> | Credit Cards | 6\,325.00   |
> | Auto Loan    | 14\,853.00  |
> |--------------+-------------|
> | Total        | 146178.26   |
>
> #+TBLFM: @5$2=vsum(@I..@II)
>
> Or with
>
> #+begin_SRC emacs-lisp
> (setq org-calc-default-modes
>       '( calc-internal-prec 12
> 	 calc-float-format  (float 8)
> 	 calc-angle-mode    deg
> 	 calc-prefer-frac   nil
> 	 calc-symbolic-mode nil
> 	 calc-language latex ;; <--- this is new compared to default, enable latex symbols
> 	 calc-group-digits t ;; <--- group digits in the results
> 	 calc-group-char "\\,"
> 	 calc-date-format (YYYY "-" MM "-" DD " " Www (" " hh ":" mm))
> 	 calc-display-working-message t))
> #+end_SRC
>
>
> | Description  | Amount      |
> |--------------+-------------|
> | Mortage      | 125\,000.26 |
> | Credit Cards | 6\,325.00   |
> | Auto Loan    | 14\,853.00  |
> |--------------+-------------|
> | Total        | 146\,178.26 |
>
> #+TBLFM: @5$2=vsum(@I..@II)
>
>> | Description  | Amount                     |
>> |--------------+----------------------------|
>> | Mortage      | \dollar 125000.26          |
>> | Credit Cards | 6325.00                    |
>> | Auto Loan    | 14853.00                   |
>> |--------------+----------------------------|
>> | Total        | 125000.26 \dollar + 21178. |
>> #+TBLFM: @5$2=vsum(@I..@II)
>>
>> Total is still wrong.
>
> You need
>
> | Description  | Amount                     |
> |--------------+----------------------------|
> | Mortage      | \dollar 125000.26          |
> | Credit Cards | \dollar 6325.00            |
> | Auto Loan    | \dollar 14853.00           |
> |--------------+----------------------------|
> | Total        | 146178.26 \dollar          |
>
> #+TBLFM: @5$2=vsum(@I..@II)
>
> Best,
> Ihor


--
====================================================
Daniel E. Doherty
Law Offices of Daniel E. Doherty
7300 W. 110th Street, Suite 930
Overland Park, KS 66210
913.338.7182 (Phone)
913.338.7164 (FAX)
ded@ddoherty.net

Re: Allow Currency Symbols and Grouping Commas in Table Numbers

[Ihor Radchenko]

"Daniel E. Doherty" <ded@ddoherty.net> writes:

> Again, thanks for your thoughts.  All, however, ruin the look of the
> tables.  Could you, perhaps, point me to where in the vast org code,
> strings are converted to numbers in preparation for sending to calc?

org-table-eval-formula could be a good starting point to look into.

Best,
Ihor

Re: Allow Currency Symbols and Grouping Commas in Table Numbers

[Daniel E. Doherty]

Thanks, I'll take a look at it.

Cheers,

On Thu, Jun 02 2022, Ihor Radchenko wrote:

> "Daniel E. Doherty" <ded@ddoherty.net> writes:
>
>> Again, thanks for your thoughts.  All, however, ruin the look of the
>> tables.  Could you, perhaps, point me to where in the vast org code,
>> strings are converted to numbers in preparation for sending to calc?
>
> org-table-eval-formula could be a good starting point to look into.
>
> Best,
> Ihor


--
====================================================
Daniel E. Doherty
Law Offices of Daniel E. Doherty
7300 W. 110th Street, Suite 930
Overland Park, KS 66210
913.338.7182 (Phone)
913.338.7164 (FAX)
ded@ddoherty.net