So you created a column - now you have to fill it. You can always enter the values manually, row by row. But this can be very tedious, especially if you need to calculate the value first. No sweat! If you want values in your column to be automatically populated, Calculate is a great option.

The Calculate feature uses formulas to dynamically calculate values based on other data in your table or doc, and fills those values in accordingly. These calculations apply to all cells in the column, and the values in those cells cannot be edited manually.

Let’s say you have a table of Projects. You already have a Start date column, plus a Duration column (in days). Now you want to use that information to figure out the End date in your new column. No problem - you just need to add a calculation to your End date column. Follow these steps:

Once you’re done, your column will fill with values according to your calculation. If you try and click on any of these cells, you’ll see a popup explaining that the values cannot be directly edited since they’re generated by the calculation.

When adding a calculation to your column, you have some options. If you want to write a custom formula - which gives you the most flexibility - click the f icon in the lower left of the builder or choose Custom formula from the dropdown. You can learn all about writing in Coda’s formula language here.

If you want to use the structured calculation builder, you’ll see two fields: Calculate from and Property.

Calculate from tells Coda what other data in your table to use in the calculation. You can choose any of the other columns in your table, or Row property. If you choose a specific column, you will calculate values based specifically off that column data. If you choose Row property, you will calculate based on properties of the entire row.

Once you’ve selected your source data (via Calculate from), you decide which property of that data you care about. The options for this Property field will vary depending on what you’ve selected in your Calculate from section.

Standard properties include Last modified (when was the specific column or the row last modified) and Last modified by (who last modified the given column or the row).

As a reminder, values in calculated columns cannot be directly edited. But maybe you no longer need your calculation and want to convert the column back to being editable - while still maintaining the values you’ve calculated thus far. You can do that by...

The values in your column should remain the same, but the underlying calculation will no longer exist. This means values won’t be updated dynamically - they are now static and need to be manually edited.

💡Tip: If you want new rows to be given a default value and still be able to edit those values as needed, check out our Value for new rows feature.