[O] formatting org-babel output

[Joe Bogner]

I am using org-mode and babel with R for reproducible research. I
would like certain numbers in the output tables to be formatted for
easier reading - such as eliminating decimals and adding commas for
readability.

The best I came up with is to use a TBLFM line at the bottom of my
results table using a function I found on the ElispCookbook on
emacswiki. A simple example is below that doesn't require R to
reproduce.

It's a two step process currently to execute the R code in org-babel
and then jump to the result table TBLFM line and  Ctrl+c Ctrl+c to
format the table

Is there a better way to format table outputs for simple things like
currency? I would be content if it's only during the org export
process too



#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
(defun group-number (num &optional size char)
    "Format NUM as string grouped to SIZE with CHAR."
    ; Based on code for `math-group-float' in calc-ext.el
    (let* ((size (or size 3))
           (char (or char ","))
           (str (if (stringp num)
                    (number-to-string (string-to-number
(replace-regexp-in-string "," "" num)))
                  (number-to-string num)))
           (pt (or (string-match "[^0-9a-zA-Z]" str) (length str))))
      (while (> pt size)
        (setq str (concat (substring str 0 (- pt size))
                          char
                          (substring str (- pt size)))
              pt (- pt size)))
      str))
#+END_SRC

#+RESULTS:
: group-number

 #+NAME: example-table
 | 100000000.55 | a |
 |     23000 | b |
 |      3000 | c |
 |     40004 | e |
 |      5000 | 3 |


This is the table I want formatted

#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp :var data=example-table
data
#+END_SRC

 #+RESULTS:
 | 100,000,000.55 | a |
 | 23,000         | b |
 | 3,000          | c |
 | 40,004         | e |
 | 5,000          | 3 |
#+TBLFM: $1='(group-number $1)'