[bug?] Copy content from one to another table changes the content

[bug?] Copy content from one to another table changes the content

[Torsten Wagner]

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Hi,
I just notice a strange behaviour within tables. I want to copy a column of
one table into another... using $1=remote(prf94120_orig, @@#$6). The
original content consist of names in the form "lastname,firstnames".
However, executing the above formular I receive "lastname + firstnames i"

I have totally no clue what is the reason for that.... a bug?!
Happens within Org-mode version 8.0.3

Thanks

Torsten

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Re: [bug?] Copy content from one to another table changes the content

[Nick Dokos]

Torsten Wagner <torsten.wagner@gmail.com> writes:

> I just notice a strange behaviour within tables. I want to copy a
> column of one table into another... using $1=remote(prf94120_orig,
> @@#$6). The original content consist of names in the form
> "lastname,firstnames". However, executing the above formular I receive
> "lastname + firstnames i"
>
> I have totally no clue what is the reason for that.... a bug?!
> Happens within Org-mode version 8.0.3
>

I tried it (on a single table too - no remote) and I get the same
behavior. I can't pretend to understand how anything in org-table.el
works, but I think this is a clue: on line 2678,
org-table-make-reference is called. If I call it by hand like this

  (org-table-make-reference "a, b" nil nil nil) --> "(a, b)"

Then on line 2706, calc-eval is called. If I call it by hand on the
value above

  (calc-eval "(a, b)") --> "a + b i"

I think it's trying to do arithmetic on complex numbers...
-- 
Nick

Re: [bug?] Copy content from one to another table changes the content

[Torsten Wagner]

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Hi Nick,

very good observation. Just wonder are we the first who observe this
problem?!
It seems org-table-make-reference and calc-eval have some sort of an
different idea of the data content.
Yes calc use that notation to deal with imaginary numbers. Funny
coincidence, the students in that list just struggle with exactly those
imaginary numbers and now there names became a imaginary number itself... ;)

Thanks for the tip, I will see if some search and replace helps me to
create a intermediate solution.

Thanks

Torsten



On 14 July 2013 05:29, Nick Dokos <ndokos@gmail.com> wrote:

> Torsten Wagner <torsten.wagner@gmail.com> writes:
>
> > I just notice a strange behaviour within tables. I want to copy a
> > column of one table into another... using $1=remote(prf94120_orig,
> > @@#$6). The original content consist of names in the form
> > "lastname,firstnames". However, executing the above formular I receive
> > "lastname + firstnames i"
> >
> > I have totally no clue what is the reason for that.... a bug?!
> > Happens within Org-mode version 8.0.3
> >
>
> I tried it (on a single table too - no remote) and I get the same
> behavior. I can't pretend to understand how anything in org-table.el
> works, but I think this is a clue: on line 2678,
> org-table-make-reference is called. If I call it by hand like this
>
>   (org-table-make-reference "a, b" nil nil nil) --> "(a, b)"
>
> Then on line 2706, calc-eval is called. If I call it by hand on the
> value above
>
>   (calc-eval "(a, b)") --> "a + b i"
>
> I think it's trying to do arithmetic on complex numbers...
> --
> Nick
>
>
>

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Re: [bug?] Copy content from one to another table changes the content

[Torsten Wagner]

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Hi again,

I can confirm that behaviour for org-mode < 8.0 (tested on 7.9.3f) if that
matter.
Furtermore, I tested a lot of alternatives.
"lastname, firstname"
lastname, firstname
lastname; firstname
etc.
It seems, they all get somehow evaluated by calc, which ends up in funny
different results.
I do not understand what was the intention of letting the code be parsed by
calc but it seems to cause trouble.

Will test to comment how to get around it

Thanks
Torsten




On 15 July 2013 11:43, Torsten Wagner <torsten.wagner@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Nick,
>
> very good observation. Just wonder are we the first who observe this
> problem?!
> It seems org-table-make-reference and calc-eval have some sort of an
> different idea of the data content.
> Yes calc use that notation to deal with imaginary numbers. Funny
> coincidence, the students in that list just struggle with exactly those
> imaginary numbers and now there names became a imaginary number itself... ;)
>
> Thanks for the tip, I will see if some search and replace helps me to
> create a intermediate solution.
>
> Thanks
>
> Torsten
>
>
>
> On 14 July 2013 05:29, Nick Dokos <ndokos@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Torsten Wagner <torsten.wagner@gmail.com> writes:
>>
>> > I just notice a strange behaviour within tables. I want to copy a
>> > column of one table into another... using $1=remote(prf94120_orig,
>> > @@#$6). The original content consist of names in the form
>> > "lastname,firstnames". However, executing the above formular I receive
>> > "lastname + firstnames i"
>> >
>> > I have totally no clue what is the reason for that.... a bug?!
>> > Happens within Org-mode version 8.0.3
>> >
>>
>> I tried it (on a single table too - no remote) and I get the same
>> behavior. I can't pretend to understand how anything in org-table.el
>> works, but I think this is a clue: on line 2678,
>> org-table-make-reference is called. If I call it by hand like this
>>
>>   (org-table-make-reference "a, b" nil nil nil) --> "(a, b)"
>>
>> Then on line 2706, calc-eval is called. If I call it by hand on the
>> value above
>>
>>   (calc-eval "(a, b)") --> "a + b i"
>>
>> I think it's trying to do arithmetic on complex numbers...
>> --
>> Nick
>>
>>
>>
>

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Re: [bug?] Copy content from one to another table changes the content

[Nick Dokos]

Torsten Wagner <torsten.wagner@gmail.com> writes:

>
> I can confirm that behaviour for org-mode < 8.0 (tested on 7.9.3f) if that matter.
> Furtermore, I tested a lot of alternatives.
> "lastname, firstname"
> lastname, firstname
> lastname; firstname
> etc.
> It seems, they all get somehow evaluated by calc, which ends up in funny different results.
> I do not understand what was the intention of letting the code be parsed by calc but it seems to cause trouble.
>

As I said, I don't know much about the implementation of tables, but I
think passing every entry in the table through calc is by design. And it
does not need to cause trouble either:

(calc-eval "abc, def") ---> "abc, def"

So trying to selectively *not* pass a cell through calc seems to be the
wrong way to go.

> Will test to comment how to get around it
>
> Thanks
> Torsten
>
> On 15 July 2013 11:43, Torsten Wagner <torsten.wagner@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>     Hi Nick,
>    
>     very good observation. Just wonder are we the first who observe this problem?!
>     It seems org-table-make-reference and calc-eval have some sort of an different idea of the data content.
>     Yes calc use that notation to deal with imaginary numbers. Funny coincidence, the students in that list just struggle with exactly those imaginary numbers and now there names
>     became a imaginary number itself... ;)
>    
>     Thanks for the tip, I will see if some search and replace helps me to create a intermediate solution.
>    
>     Thanks
>    
>     Torsten
>
>     On 14 July 2013 05:29, Nick Dokos <ndokos@gmail.com> wrote:
>    
>         Torsten Wagner <torsten.wagner@gmail.com> writes:
>        
>         > I just notice a strange behaviour within tables. I want to copy a
>         > column of one table into another... using $1=remote(prf94120_orig,
>         > @@#$6). The original content consist of names in the form
>         > "lastname,firstnames". However, executing the above formular I receive
>         > "lastname + firstnames i"
>         >
>         > I have totally no clue what is the reason for that.... a bug?!
>         > Happens within Org-mode version 8.0.3
>         >
>        
>         I tried it (on a single table too - no remote) and I get the same
>         behavior. I can't pretend to understand how anything in org-table.el
>         works, but I think this is a clue: on line 2678,
>         org-table-make-reference is called. If I call it by hand like this
>        
>           (org-table-make-reference "a, b" nil nil nil) --> "(a, b)"
>        
>         Then on line 2706, calc-eval is called. If I call it by hand on the
>         value above
>        
>           (calc-eval "(a, b)") --> "a + b i"
>        
>         I think it's trying to do arithmetic on complex numbers...
>         --
>         Nick
>

-- 
Nick

Re: [bug?] Copy content from one to another table changes the content

[Torsten Wagner]

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Hi again,

I think I got a bit more of an idea what is going wrong thanks to Nick.

I use $1 = remote(prf94120_orig, @@#$6)

which reads copy from table prf94120_orig  row (@)  of the current to be
processed field (@#)  column ($) 6 into column ($) 1.
The org-mode manual refers to @# as operator for formulas and hence I
believe the result will be parsed by calc to get a meaningful output. That
is ok for simple strings without space or comma separators, since they
remain strings.

However, a string like "text,text" will be send to calc as ("text","text")
which is the calc notation for imaginary numbers.

Either, I should use a different way to copy the column or this could be
considered as a bug?!

Actually, I still do not understand the need to let calc parse that a
field-content.
If I want to do math, I am not suppose to express this explicit by my
formula?
Instead of having a single field content of "1 + 2" evaluated to be "3" by
remote copy, I would expect
to do something like remote(NAME, REF) + remote(NAME, REF) for calculating
the sum of two remote fields or in case I really have a complete expression
in a single field, I would expect to do something like (calc remote(NAME,
REF)) explicit to get it parsed by calc and placing the result in the new
table?!

Somehow, I miss something. Would be glad if someone could explain to me the
reason for the original behaviour.

Thanks

Torsten







On 15 July 2013 15:36, Nick Dokos <ndokos@gmail.com> wrote:

> Torsten Wagner <torsten.wagner@gmail.com> writes:
>
> >
> > I can confirm that behaviour for org-mode < 8.0 (tested on 7.9.3f) if
> that matter.
> > Furtermore, I tested a lot of alternatives.
> > "lastname, firstname"
> > lastname, firstname
> > lastname; firstname
> > etc.
> > It seems, they all get somehow evaluated by calc, which ends up in funny
> different results.
> > I do not understand what was the intention of letting the code be parsed
> by calc but it seems to cause trouble.
> >
>
> As I said, I don't know much about the implementation of tables, but I
> think passing every entry in the table through calc is by design. And it
> does not need to cause trouble either:
>
> (calc-eval "abc, def") ---> "abc, def"
>
> So trying to selectively *not* pass a cell through calc seems to be the
> wrong way to go.
>
> > Will test to comment how to get around it
> >
> > Thanks
> > Torsten
> >
> > On 15 July 2013 11:43, Torsten Wagner <torsten.wagner@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >     Hi Nick,
> >
> >     very good observation. Just wonder are we the first who observe this
> problem?!
> >     It seems org-table-make-reference and calc-eval have some sort of an
> different idea of the data content.
> >     Yes calc use that notation to deal with imaginary numbers. Funny
> coincidence, the students in that list just struggle with exactly those
> imaginary numbers and now there names
> >     became a imaginary number itself... ;)
> >
> >     Thanks for the tip, I will see if some search and replace helps me
> to create a intermediate solution.
> >
> >     Thanks
> >
> >     Torsten
> >
> >     On 14 July 2013 05:29, Nick Dokos <ndokos@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >         Torsten Wagner <torsten.wagner@gmail.com> writes:
> >
> >         > I just notice a strange behaviour within tables. I want to
> copy a
> >         > column of one table into another... using
> $1=remote(prf94120_orig,
> >         > @@#$6). The original content consist of names in the form
> >         > "lastname,firstnames". However, executing the above formular I
> receive
> >         > "lastname + firstnames i"
> >         >
> >         > I have totally no clue what is the reason for that.... a bug?!
> >         > Happens within Org-mode version 8.0.3
> >         >
> >
> >         I tried it (on a single table too - no remote) and I get the same
> >         behavior. I can't pretend to understand how anything in
> org-table.el
> >         works, but I think this is a clue: on line 2678,
> >         org-table-make-reference is called. If I call it by hand like
> this
> >
> >           (org-table-make-reference "a, b" nil nil nil) --> "(a, b)"
> >
> >         Then on line 2706, calc-eval is called. If I call it by hand on
> the
> >         value above
> >
> >           (calc-eval "(a, b)") --> "a + b i"
> >
> >         I think it's trying to do arithmetic on complex numbers...
> >         --
> >         Nick
> >
>
> --
> Nick
>
>
>

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Re: [bug?] Copy content from one to another table changes the content

[Michael Brand]

Hi Torsten

On Tue, Jul 16, 2013 at 12:24 PM, Torsten Wagner
<torsten.wagner@gmail.com> wrote:
> Either, I should use a different way to copy the column or this could be
> considered as a bug?!

Some time ago I did some experiments about just copying a field that I
put into the ERT function test-org-table/copy-field in
testing/lisp/test-org-table.el for documentation. The Calc variants
there are more for fun than useful. The Lisp variant:
#+TBLFM: $1 = '(identity remote(prf94120_orig, @@#$6))

test-org-table.el on the Web:
http://orgmode.org/w/org-mode.git?p=org-mode.git;a=blob;f=testing/lisp/test-org-table.el

Michael