Tables and formulas

Make a table

• /table opens a grid under the cursor. Move the pointer over it, or use the arrows, to choose the number of columns and rows, then click or press Enter. The empty table is written, and the cursor waits in its first cell. For a table larger than the grid, type its size while the grid is open, columns first: 12x5.
• By hand: | a | b | then Tab is enough. The line of dashes is written for you.
• The formatting bar has a table button too.

How a table looks

A table is drawn as a grid, like on the web:

• Columns share the width of the page. A long cell wraps inside its column, and its row grows. A short column keeps its natural width.
• The header row is in bold. :--, :-: and --: under it align a column.
• The text underneath is plain Markdown. The |, the line of dashes and the padding are not drawn.
• A literal | in a cell is written \| and shown as |.
• The columns of the text are aligned as you type, so the file reads well in other editors. Wide characters (ideograms, emoji) count as two. A table too wide to stay aligned is written compactly.
• A table wider than the text can spill out on both sides of the column, or scroll inside it. See wide tables in Settings. Only a table with more columns than the page can show, even at their narrowest, scrolls sideways (Shift + wheel or a horizontal swipe), following the cursor.

Move and type

• Tab and Shift + Tab go to the next and previous cell, and select its content: typing replaces it. After the last cell, Tab adds a row.
• Enter adds a row under the current one. On a last row left empty, it removes that row and leaves the table.
• Arrows move from cell to cell without stopping on the |. Up and Down follow the lines of a wrapped cell, then go to the cell below.
• Backspace and Delete stop at the edge of a cell.
• Selecting several cells and erasing, cutting or typing empties them, without merging the columns.
• Ctrl + Shift + L, E and R align the column of the cursor left, centered or right.

Rows and columns

Two + buttons appear when the pointer or the cursor is on a table: the one below adds a row, the one on the right adds a column.

Grips. With the pointer over a table, a small grip (three dots) shows above the column and left of the row under it. A round one sits near the top left corner. A click takes the column, the row or the whole table, and outlines it. Then:

• Ctrl + C and Ctrl + X copy and cut it as a Markdown table. It pastes as a table in another note, an issue or a mail.
• Delete empties its cells. The shape of the table stays.
• Drag a column or row grip to move it. A line shows where it will land, and Esc lets go. The header row stays first.
• The + between two grips inserts a column or a row right there.
• A right click on a grip takes it and opens the menu.

The menu. Right click in a table, or type the name of the gesture in the palette (row, column, sort, swap):

• insert a row above or below, or a column left or right;
• duplicate, move or delete a row or a column;
• sort the rows on the column of the cursor, A to Z or Z to A: numbers by value, empty cells last, the header stays put;
• swap rows and columns;
• delete the whole table.

Gestures apply to every row and column the selection touches. One Ctrl + Z takes a gesture back.

Keys. Alt + Up and Alt + Down move the row (the header stays first). Ctrl + Shift + Backspace deletes it, or the columns taken by their grip. Every gesture is in the help panel, where it can get a key of its own.

Deleting the header makes the next row the header. Deleting the last column or row deletes the table. To remove a column by hand, delete its cells.

Paste

• In a table, text goes into one cell, on one line, its | escaped. Cells copied from a spreadsheet or a web page (tab-separated), or from another Markdown table, fill the grid from the current cell. Rows and columns are added as needed.
• Under a table, a pasted line becomes part of it, and its columns line up.
• Anywhere else, a pasted Markdown table or tab-separated cells become a table on their own lines, aligned, with the line of dashes added.

Formulas

A cell that starts with = computes. The file keeps the formula; other apps show its text.

=B*C
=sum(above)
=avg(B1:B9)
=round(B/C, 2)
=if(B>10, "big", "small")

References

• Columns are letters. Rows are numbers, counted from the first row under the header, as in a spreadsheet: C2, B1:B10.
• B alone is column B of the formula's own row, so the same formula works on every line.
• above, left and column (the other cells of the column) are ranges by position.

Functions and operators

• Functions: sum, avg (or average), min, max, count, round, abs, if.
• Operators: + - * / ^ %. 15% is a hundredth, 7 % 3 a remainder.
• Comparisons: = <> < <= > >=. Parentheses group.
• Arguments are separated by , or ;. Decimals in a formula use a point.

Numbers in cells are read as written: 1 234,5, 1,234.5, 12.50 €, $3, 15%. With a single separator, it is the decimal one: 1,234 is 1.234. Write 1 234 or 1,234.00 for a thousand. The sort of a table reads numbers the same way. Text and empty cells are left out of sums.

Results

• The result shows in the cell, right-aligned, in another color. With the cursor in the cell, the formula shows instead, ready to edit.
• A cell with no result shows #ERR. Pointing at it says why: unknown function, reference out of the table, a cell that depends on itself, a text where a number is needed, a division by zero…
• Results follow what you type. Only a table that has formulas is computed, and not a very large one. A table of 1,400 rows with a running total in each row takes about 25 ms per keystroke.

Helpers

• Alt + = writes a total in the cell: the sum of the cells above, or on its left when only those hold numbers. A cell with something else in it is not overwritten.
• After =, completion offers functions, ranges, and the columns by letter or header.
• Ctrl + C on cells keeps the formulas: they paste back as formulas.
• Ctrl + Alt + C, or copy the cells with their results in the palette, copies the taken cells (or the table) with their results, as tabs and line breaks, for a spreadsheet.

Formulas are for the tables of a note, not for the CSV grid.

Very large tables

Past 1,500 rows (a whole CSV turned into Markdown, for instance), a table is no longer laid out as one block:

• Its columns are sized from its first 300 rows.
• Cells stop wrapping, and what overflows is cut, so every row has the same height.
• Only the rows near the screen are drawn.

A table of 300,000 rows opens in about 40 ms, and typing in it takes under 10 ms.

Such a table keeps Tab, Shift + Tab and Enter, but has no grips, no row and column gestures, and its columns are not realigned as you type.