Consolidate Regional Tables by Label in Gnumeric

Combine two regional tables whose categories and measure columns appear in different orders. Data → Consolidate can match labels; adding the same cell addresses would instead combine different items in this example.

Scope: free Gnumeric desktop on Linux, English labels from the official 1.12.62 source and the 1.12 manual, reviewed 21 October 2026. No native GUI execution or screenshots were available. Controls and result semantics are source-qualified; arithmetic below is independently checked, not an observed application result. Older packages may differ.

Enter two deliberately reordered tables

Create sheets East, West and Combined. Use worksheet organization if needed. On East enter A1:C3:

Item	Budget	Actual
Cable	100	90
Adapter	60	70

On West enter A1:C3:

Item	Actual	Budget
Adapter	40	50
Cable	110	120

Both the item order and the measure order have changed. East budget/actual totals are 160/160; West budget/actual totals are 170/150. No total row is included in either input range. Save a checkpoint as regional-start.gnumeric and use a separate working file.

Configure label-based consolidation

1. Activate the empty Combined sheet and select only A1. Open Data → Consolidate.
2. Choose SUM as Function.
3. In Source areas, enter East!$A$1:$C$3 and West!$A$1:$C$3 on separate editable rows. Commit each entry. Remove any unintended prefilled area; each source must appear exactly once.
4. Enable Labels in top row, Labels in left column, and Copy labels.
5. On Output, choose New sheet to avoid overwriting either source or an existing report. Set Enter into cells to Values for this first run.
6. Confirm. Identify the generated result sheet. Read its labels rather than assuming it uses East’s row or column order.

The Data-menu manual identifies Consolidate. The official 1.12.62 source, particularly src/dialogs/consolidate.ui, dialog-consolidate.c, dao.ui and src/consolidate.c, supplies the detailed label, source-area and output controls used here. The older manual alone is not a complete dialog walkthrough.

Check four intersections, not just the grand total

Locate these label intersections in the result:

Item	Budget	Actual
Cable	220	200
Adapter	110	110
Combined check	330	310

The last row is your independent check, not a promised automatically generated total row. Cable budget is 100 + 120 = 220; Cable actual is 90 + 110 = 200. Adapter budget is 60 + 50 = 110; Adapter actual is 70 + 40 = 110.

A total of 640 across all four numeric cells does not prove correct matching: positional addition also totals 640 while putting amounts in the wrong categories. Check every item/measure intersection and preserve its labels. The output’s top-left corner need not repeat Item; that corner is not a numeric input.

Inspect an output amount in the formula entry area. For this Values run it should be a stored number. Return to East and West to confirm their contents and ordering remain intact.

Distinguish a snapshot from formula output

Change West!C3, the Cable budget, from 120 to 130. The first Values result should remain Cable budget 220. Its unchanged value is an old snapshot, not an updated combined report.

Run Consolidate again with exactly the same two source ranges and label settings, sending it to another New sheet. This time choose Formulæ under Enter into cells. With the changed source, expect Cable budget 230, total budget 340, and total actual 310. Inspect the Cable budget output for a formula instead of trusting its appearance.

Restore West!C3 to 120. The formula-output Cable budget should return to 220, with total budget 330; the original Values result remains 220. This source-edit check distinguishes the two modes. Reopen and verify it in your installed build before relying on the linkage.

Formula output is not a promise of automatic category discovery. Adding a new row, changing a label or changing the source range requires reviewing and rerunning consolidation; an existing formula cannot be assumed to rebuild the label mapping.

Troubleshooting

• Correct grand total, wrong items: verify both label options. Positional combination is wrong for these reordered inputs.
• Amounts doubled: inspect Source areas for the same range listed twice or a source already containing combined totals.
• Copy labels unavailable: enable a label-recognition option first. Here both row and column labels are required.
• Output overlaps input: cancel and use New sheet rather than authorizing a destructive replacement.
• Two almost-identical categories: inspect spelling and spaces in source labels. This lesson uses exact consistent labels, not fuzzy matching or normalization.
• Expected a refresh but nothing changed: inspect whether the result is Values or Formulæ, then check the source address used by the formula.

Keep the .gnumeric master, initial checkpoint and labeled output sheets. CSV cannot preserve this multi-sheet model. This tool complements, rather than replaces, explicit cross-sheet summary formulas.