Editors frequently make errors when adding up figures in a table (Community Wishlist/W480)
One of the pages I monitor is en:Opinion polling for the 2026 Israeli legislative election. It contains numerous tables but the main one lists opinion polls showing voters' intentions. The table lists the results by projected seats per party. It then provides two totals: one for parties in the governing coalition and one for parties in the opposition. I find that editors often enter incorrect totals in those two columns. I imagine that the same problem occurs in other Wikipedia tables. I asked the Help Desk whether there is a tool which could be used to generate such totals or, alternatively, to check them. I was told that there probably isn't such a tool but that it would make a good suggestion for the community wishlist. Thanks for considering this request!
I see another instance of this problem today. For the 11 Feb 2026 Kantar poll, the numbers for the opposition parties add up to 52 but the total shown is 55. Note that something else must be wrong here too as 52 + 52 + 13 would come to 117, not 120 (the number of seats in the Knesset). This latter problem must be the result of incorrect data and cannot be solved by a tool.
Unassigned
Editors of pages containing tables of numbers which are being totalled, either horizontally or vertically.
- Created: 14:10, 8 December 2025
- Last updated: 17:18, 27 March 2026
- Author: Misha Wolf (talk)
This wish currently has 1 supporter. Voting for this wish is open until it is completed.