Re: [O] Worg Tutorial error: using Emacs lisp as formulas

[Nick Dokos]

Ciaran Mulloy <address@hidden> writes:

> Hi!
> I was fascinated to work through the examples provided in the org-tutorials 
> sections under Worg and really see the power of using eLisp as spreadsheet 
> formula: http://orgmode.org/worg/
> org-tutorials/org-spreadsheet-lisp-formulas.html
>
> However the use of the mapconcat function always generated an error: Invalid 
> regex "Regular expression too big", even with only a few terms in the formula.
>
> The offending formula was:
>
> #+TBLFM: @2$3='(mapconcat 'identity (delete-dups (list @2$1..@>$1 
> @2$2..@>$2)) " ")
>
> I experimented with variations of the formula getting the same error every 
> time.
>
> I did a search of the org-mode forum without finding any solution.
>
> Any thoughts?
>

I can't reproduce it - e.g. this

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
| one | two | three         | four | five |
|-----+-----+---------------+------+------|
| a   | a   | a b c e f d g |      |      |
| a   | b   |               |      |      |
| b   | a   |               |      |      |
| c   | d   |               |      |      |
| e   | f   |               |      |      |
| f   | g   |               |      |      |
| a   | f   |               |      |      |
#+TBLFM: @2$3='(mapconcat 'identity (delete-dups (list @2$1..@>$1 @2$2..@>$2)) 
" ")
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

works fine for me. This is with more-or-less latest org.

Moreover, none of the functions used (mapconcat, identity, delete-dups
or list) use regexps at all. There is a chance that regexps are used by
the evaluator when building the ranges, but it's unlikely IMO, so the
regexp error seems like a red herring to me. How big a table did you
try? Did you try restarting emacs and redoing the evaluation? How about
starting emacs without any of your customizations and redoing the
evaluation? Something like this

  emacs -q -l /path/to/minimal/init /path/to/file/with/the/table

where the minimal init file just sets load-path if necessary and
initializes org.

-- 
Nick