From: Ihor Radchenko <yantar92@posteo.net>
To: emacs-orgmode@gnu.org
Subject: [RFC] Rename :colnames header argument to :strip-colnames
Date: Sun, 08 Feb 2026 11:05:59 +0000 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <87343b1oky.fsf@localhost> (raw)
Hello,
The :colnames header argument in src blocks often causes confusion among
users.
#+cindex: @samp{colnames}, header argument
The =colnames= header argument accepts =yes=, =no=, or =nil= values.
The default value is =nil=: if an input table has column
names---because the second row is a horizontal rule---then Org
removes the column names, processes the table, puts back the column
names, and then writes the table to the results block. Using =yes=,
Org does the same to the first non-hline row, even if the initial
table does not contain any horizontal rule. When set to =no=, Org
does not pre-process column names at all.
With :colnames yes and :colnames nil, the colnames are actually
*stripped* when table is passed to the code, and re-added to the result.
With ":colnames no" Org passes the full table, including colnames to the
src block.
So, I am thinking about something more intuitive like
- :strip-colnames
- :detach-colnames
The allowed values should also be yes, no, and 'auto (previously nil).
Thoughts? Other ideas?
--
Ihor Radchenko // yantar92,
Org mode maintainer,
Learn more about Org mode at <https://orgmode.org/>.
Support Org development at <https://liberapay.com/org-mode>,
or support my work at <https://liberapay.com/yantar92>
next reply other threads:[~2026-02-08 11:08 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 6+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-02-08 11:05 Ihor Radchenko [this message]
2026-02-08 15:05 ` [RFC] Rename :colnames header argument to :strip-colnames Christian Moe
2026-02-08 17:00 ` Thomas S. Dye
2026-02-09 11:25 ` Christian Moe
2026-02-09 17:42 ` Thomas S. Dye
2026-02-09 3:12 ` William Denton
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