Features/Formulas

• Formulas
  • A formula column is an extra column whose value Tine works out for you from the other columns in the row. You never type the result — Tine recomputes it live, shows it on screen, and never writes it back onto your bullets. Open the same file in Logseq and you just see ordinary bullets with a harmless tine.formula.* property.
• A formula in action
  tine.view:: table

  tine.fields:: task=text;hours=number;done=checkbox

  tine.formula.plan:: if(hours > 3, "focus block", "quick task")
  • Sketch the outline
    hours:: 2

    done:: true
  • Write the first draft
    hours:: 5

    done:: false
  • The plan column is a formula. Tine reads hours from each row and shows focus block or quick task — you never type it, and it updates the moment hours changes.
• The building blocks
  • Value face — click it to open a picker with these sections:
    • Field — one of your own columns (or type a custom field name).
    • Formula — another formula column on the same table, shown as formula.<name>.
    • Literal — a fixed number, a bit of text, or True / False / Empty.
    • Function — if condition, is empty, now, today.
    • Transform — tweaks like lowercase, trim, round, year, format date, length.
  • IF / THEN / ELSE — pick the if condition function on any value to branch: IF a condition THEN one value ELSE another value.
  • Condition — compare two values with an operator (=, ≠, <, ≤, >, ≥), and join several with AND / OR.
• </> raw — type it directly
  • The </> raw button at the top-right of the editor switches from clickable faces to a plain text box, where you can type the expression yourself — for example hours * 2 or if(hours > 3, "focus block", "quick task"). The chips below insert your fields, other formulas, and built-in functions at the cursor. Flip Builder back on whenever the text is something the faces can show again.
• Honest limits
  • The visual builder handles one level: a single IF/THEN/ELSE, simple comparisons, and a value that is at most one arithmetic step of two simple values (like hours * 2).
  • Anything more nested — a formula inside a THEN branch, or arithmetic of arithmetic like (hours + extra) * 2 — shows up as a small raw box instead of pretty faces. Use </> raw to type those directly; they still evaluate exactly the same, they just do not get a visual face.
  • Formula values are read-only and are never saved onto your rows, so they always reflect the current data and round-trip cleanly back to Logseq.
• Create one yourself — formula
  • 1. Make a table (see Features/Sheets) with at least one field to compute from, for example a hours=number column.
  • 2. Right-click a table column header — or right-click the table body / open its ⋮ menu — and choose Add formula…. Give it a short lowercase name like plan.
  • 3. The visual builder opens. You build the value by clicking faces — no syntax to memorize: pick a field, add a comparison, wrap it in IF / THEN / ELSE. Press Save and a read-only column appears, filling in live.
  • 4. Use the </> raw toggle when you would rather type the expression, such as hours * 2.
  • 5. To change it later, right-click the formula column and choose Edit formula….
  • 6. What you should see: a read-only computed column whose values evaluate live and are never written onto the rows.