Spreadsheet Formulas

Formula cells start with = and are evaluated by IronCalc through Tolaria's sheet editor.

Tolaria adds vault-aware sheet references on top of the normal spreadsheet formula model. Everything else should be treated as IronCalc formula behavior. IronCalc aims for Excel-compatible formulas, but the upstream project is still evolving, so verify advanced formulas against the IronCalc docs when precision matters.

The same [[note]].field target forms are also available to HTML block vault expressions. Use Vault Expressions for {{...}} syntax and HTML formatting helpers.

Basic Syntax

Syntax	Meaning
=B2+B3-B4	Arithmetic over cells.
=SUM(B2:D2)	Function call over a range.
=ROUND(E6, 2)	Function call with arguments.
=IF(E6>0, "Up", "Down")	Conditional expression.
=$B$2	Absolute column and row reference.
=B$2	Relative column, absolute row.
=$B2	Absolute column, relative row.
=B2:D10	A range in the current sheet note.
="Q" & 1	Text concatenation.

Use parentheses when a model depends on precedence:

=(B2+B3-B4)/B5

Tolaria Note References

Tolaria supports wikilink cell references for values that live in another sheet note:

=[[newsletter-revenue]].B5
=SUM(B2:D2)+[[sponsorship-pipeline]].E12
=ROUND([[business-plan]].$E$12, 2)
=[[launch-brief]].2

The target inside [[...]] resolves like a normal Tolaria wikilink. The cell address after the dot uses A1 notation.

Absolute markers follow spreadsheet copy behavior:

Reference	Copy behavior
[[revenue]].B5	row and column can shift
[[revenue]].$B$5	row and column stay fixed
[[revenue]].B$5	row fixed, column can shift
[[revenue]].$B5	column fixed, row can shift

Cross-sheet cell references currently resolve single cells. Keep range formulas inside one sheet note until cross-note ranges are explicitly supported.

Formulas can also read scalar frontmatter properties from a specific note:

=[[device.md]].power.watts
=[[project-alpha]].status
=[[book-notes/the-design-of-everyday-things.md]].rating

The target resolves like a wikilink, and the dot path reads nested frontmatter keys. Numbers, booleans, and strings become formula literals. Missing notes, ambiguous note targets, missing properties, arrays, maps, and other non-scalar values resolve to #N/A.

A first segment that looks like an A1 cell address, such as B2, is treated as a cross-sheet cell reference. Use property names that do not collide with A1 notation for frontmatter formulas.

Formulas can read one raw Markdown body line from any note with numeric dot notation:

=[[launch-brief]].1
=[[launch-brief]].2

Line references exclude YAML frontmatter, are 1-based, and preserve commas as text. [[note]].A1 still means grid/cell access and can split comma-separated content; [[note]].1 means the whole first body line.

Autocomplete Functions

Tolaria's formula autocomplete exposes the implemented function catalog from the bundled IronCalc engine. The current catalog has 195 functions.

The dropdown shows a small ranked set of matches while you type. Keep typing to narrow the result list. Function names with digits and dots, such as BIN2DEC and ERFC.PRECISE, are supported.

Logical

AND, FALSE, IF, IFERROR, IFNA, IFS, NOT, OR, SWITCH, TRUE, XOR

Math and trigonometry

ABS, ACOS, ACOSH, ASIN, ASINH, ATAN, ATAN2, ATANH, COS, COSH, PI, POWER, PRODUCT, RAND, RANDBETWEEN, ROUND, ROUNDDOWN, ROUNDUP, SIN, SINH, SQRT, SQRTPI, SUM, SUMIF, SUMIFS, TAN, TANH, SUBTOTAL

Lookup and reference

CHOOSE, COLUMN, COLUMNS, HLOOKUP, INDEX, INDIRECT, LOOKUP, MATCH, OFFSET, ROW, ROWS, VLOOKUP, XLOOKUP

Text

CONCAT, CONCATENATE, EXACT, FIND, LEFT, LEN, LOWER, MID, REPT, RIGHT, SEARCH, SUBSTITUTE, T, TEXT, TEXTAFTER, TEXTBEFORE, TEXTJOIN, TRIM, UNICODE, UPPER, VALUE, VALUETOTEXT

Information

ERROR.TYPE, FORMULATEXT, ISBLANK, ISERR, ISERROR, ISEVEN, ISFORMULA, ISLOGICAL, ISNA, ISNONTEXT, ISNUMBER, ISODD, ISREF, ISTEXT, NA, SHEET, TYPE

Statistical

AVERAGE, AVERAGEA, AVERAGEIF, AVERAGEIFS, COUNT, COUNTA, COUNTBLANK, COUNTIF, COUNTIFS, GEOMEAN, MAX, MAXIFS, MIN, MINIFS

Date and time

DATE, DAY, EDATE, EOMONTH, MONTH, NOW, TODAY, YEAR

Financial

CUMIPMT, CUMPRINC, DB, DDB, DOLLARDE, DOLLARFR, EFFECT, FV, IPMT, IRR, ISPMT, MIRR, NOMINAL, NPER, NPV, PDURATION, PMT, PPMT, PV, RATE, RRI, SLN, SYD, TBILLEQ, TBILLPRICE, TBILLYIELD, XIRR, XNPV

Engineering

BESSELI, BESSELJ, BESSELK, BESSELY, BIN2DEC, BIN2HEX, BIN2OCT, BITAND, BITLSHIFT, BITOR, BITRSHIFT, BITXOR, COMPLEX, CONVERT, DEC2BIN, DEC2HEX, DEC2OCT, DELTA, ERF, ERF.PRECISE, ERFC, ERFC.PRECISE, GESTEP, HEX2BIN, HEX2DEC, HEX2OCT, IMABS, IMAGINARY, IMARGUMENT, IMCONJUGATE, IMCOS, IMCOSH, IMCOT, IMCSC, IMCSCH, IMDIV, IMEXP, IMLN, IMLOG10, IMLOG2, IMPOWER, IMPRODUCT, IMREAL, IMSEC, IMSECH, IMSIN, IMSINH, IMSQRT, IMSUB, IMSUM, IMTAN, OCT2BIN, OCT2DEC, OCT2HEX

Examples

Totals

=SUM(B2:D2)
=B2+B3-B4
=SUM(B2:D2)-SUM(B4:D4)

Growth And Percentages

=(C5-B5)/B5
=IF(B5=0, 0, (C5-B5)/B5)
=ROUND((C5-B5)/B5, 4)

Format the result as a percentage with a cell num_fmt such as 0.00%.

Conditional Logic

=IF(E5>10000, "On track", "Review")
=IFS(E5>10000, "High", E5>5000, "Medium", TRUE, "Low")
=IFERROR(B5/B4, 0)

Dates

=TODAY()
=DATE(2026, 6, 15)
=YEAR(TODAY())
=MONTH(TODAY())

Text

=CONCAT(A2, " - ", B2)
=UPPER(A2)
=TRIM(A2)
=TEXT(B2, "$#,##0.00")

Lookup

=INDEX(B2:E10, 3, 2)
=MATCH("Revenue", A2:A20, 0)
=VLOOKUP("Revenue", A2:E20, 5, FALSE)
=XLOOKUP("Revenue", A2:A20, E2:E20)

Cross-Sheet Model

=[[newsletter-revenue]].E5
=SUM(B2:D2)+[[sponsorship-pipeline]].E12
=IF([[business-plan]].$E$12>0, [[business-plan]].$E$12, 0)
=[[launch-brief]].2

IronCalc Function Families

IronCalc documents formulas by category. Use these upstream pages for detailed syntax and examples. The upstream documentation may include newer functions that are not yet present in Tolaria's bundled IronCalc version.

Family	Link
Lookup and reference	IronCalc lookup and reference
Financial	IronCalc financial
Engineering	IronCalc engineering
Database	IronCalc database
Statistical	IronCalc statistical
Text	IronCalc text
Math and trigonometry	IronCalc math and trigonometry
Logical	IronCalc logical
Date and time	IronCalc date and time
Information	IronCalc information

IronCalc also documents value types, error types, optional arguments, and formatting values.

For current upstream gaps, see IronCalc's unsupported features.