🧮Computed columns and formulas
A computed column is not typed into. It works out its value from the other columns in the same row, and recalculates every time one of them changes. Win percentage, goal difference, points from a 3-1-0 system, and per-game averages are all the same feature.
Step by step
- 1
Add a column and mark it computed
Open Edit columns on your standings or statistics table, add a column, give it a label — PTS, GD, PCT — and mark it as computed. A formula builder appears in place of the type picker. Schedule columns cannot be computed.
- 2
Start from a template
The builder offers the handful of things a computed column is usually for: winning percentage, difference between two columns, one column divided by another, and a points system. Pick one and it asks only which of your columns to use.
- 3
Answer the questions it asks
For winning percentage it asks for your wins column, your losses column, and whether you have a third result — a draw, a tie, an overtime loss — and how it should count. That question exists because the denominator is where win percentage goes wrong invisibly: a draw is conventionally half a win, an overtime loss is not a win but is still a game played.
- 4
Or build it by hand
Tap columns, numbers, operators and brackets to assemble the formula yourself. It appears as a row of chips rather than as text, so there is no syntax to get wrong and no hidden column key to remember.
- 5
Save and check a row
Close the panel and press Save. Look at a row where you already know the right answer before trusting the column for a whole season.
What a formula can do
Formulas are deliberately plain arithmetic: references to your other number columns, literal numbers, add, subtract, multiply, divide, and brackets. That is the whole language. There are no conditionals, no functions, and no references to other rows or other tables.
| You want | The formula |
|---|---|
| Goal difference | GF − GA |
| Win percentage, no draws | W ÷ (W + L) |
| Win percentage, draw counts half | (W + D ÷ 2) ÷ (W + L + D) |
| 3 points a win, 1 a draw | W × 3 + D |
| Points per game | PTS ÷ GP |
| Batting average | H ÷ AB |
Things worth knowing
- Only number columns can be referenced. A text column has nothing to add up.
- Results are rounded to three decimal places, which is what a batting average or a win percentage wants anyway.
- Dividing by zero shows nothing rather than an error, so a team that has not played yet leaves the cell blank instead of breaking the table.
- A computed column cannot be typed into and cannot take an Add to totals entry. Change the columns it reads from instead.
- Sorting works on computed columns like any other, so you can rank the table on a column that does not exist as data.
A formula that refers to a column you later deleted or renamed does not complain — the missing reference reads as 0. That is the one way a computed column can be silently wrong, so re-check your formulas after changing a column set.
Points systems
A points system is a formula, not a rule engine. "3 for a win, 1 for a draw" is written as W × 3 + D, and the points template will write it for you from the columns and the point values you give it. Terms worth zero points are left out rather than written as × 0, so the formula you end up with reads the way you would say it out loud.
Common questions
- Can a formula use an if-statement?
- No. Formulas are arithmetic only. In practice the conditional logic people want — points for a win versus a draw — is expressible as multiplication and addition over the counts you already keep.
- Can a formula reference another team’s row?
- No. A formula only sees the columns in its own row. Head-to-head tiebreakers and strength-of-schedule calculations are outside what this does.
- Do sport presets already include computed columns?
- Some do. Where a preset has the pieces to compute a differential or a percentage honestly, it ships that column as a formula rather than as a number you have to maintain. You can convert any of them back to a plain number column if you would rather type it.
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