Calculations on iPhone and iPad
Calc blocks work on iPhone and iPad exactly as they do on the Mac: the same engine, worked out on the device and offline, gives the same answer to every line. What changes is how you type them. This page covers the keys, suggestions and menus made for a touch screen; the Calculations part of the Guide covers what you can write.
Answers beside every line
Start a calc block with Calculation Block on the formatting bar, and type one sum per line. Each answer appears at the end of its line as you type, and a name you define carries on down the note:
hotel = €145 × 3 gives €435.00train = €38 × 2 gives €76.00total = hotel + train gives €511.00total / 2 gives €255.50Tap an answer to copy it. Tap an error to see why the line couldn’t be worked out, with an example of what works. At the largest text sizes, an answer too wide for its column moves under its line.
The summary under a block adds up its lines — Total to begin with. Tap it for its menu: copy it, choose Average, Count or Median, or Hide for This Calculation. A shopping list shows what’s planned, bought and still to buy, and ticking an item in the reader moves the totals straight away:
- [x] bread €3.40 gives €3.40- [ ] cheese €7.95 gives €7.95- [ ] apples 4 @ €0.55 gives €2.20remaining gives €10.15See Shopping lists and budgets and The summary under each block.
Calculator keys
With the cursor in a calc block, the formatting bar turns into calculator keys:
- The operators
+ − × ÷ = ( ) % ^and the decimal separator your note uses. - The block’s own currencies and units, most used first, then the note’s currency and your region’s units for temperature, distance and weight, and the most traded currencies.
- prev, for the answer on the line above.
- Calculation Examples, for a working example of almost anything.
Touch and hold a key for its other forms: × gives * and ·, ^ gives ², ³ and √, = gives the comparisons, a currency symbol gives its code, and prev gives ans, ↑ and each line above with its answer, such as line3. Pick a second operator straight after the first and it replaces it, as on a calculator: 5 + then × is 5 ×.
The key at the start of the row switches back to the formatting keys for the rest of that block, and leaving the block brings them back too. With a keyboard attached, only the keys a keyboard lacks stay: currencies, units, references and the examples.
Two switches in Settings › Editor decide how this works: Calculator keys in calculation blocks (on), and Numbers keyboard in calculation blocks (off), which opens the keyboard on its numbers when you enter a calc block.
Names as you type
On a calc line, the bar above the keyboard suggests names as you type, in place of the calculator keys:
- Your values, the ones defined above and in shared definitions, each with its value beside it:
price $10. - Functions, with their arguments.
- Units and currencies, found by name as well as symbol:
kiloofferskgandkm,celsiusoffers°C,eurooffersEUR.
What’s offered depends on where you are: units and currencies after a number or after in, values and functions after an operator. Tap a suggestion to write it, even a name of several words. The Insert Name key among the calculator keys lists every name that fits, and so does Escape or F5 on a keyboard.
Function help
Inside a function call, the function’s arguments float in a small bubble above the line, with the one you’re typing in bold. Tap the bubble, or the Function Help key that appears among the calculator keys, to open Functions: every function the calculator knows, searchable, each with its arguments, a description and an example worked out live. Insert Example adds the example to your calc block.
The answer menu
Touch and hold an answer for everything you can do with that line. While you’re reading, the menu holds:
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
| Copy Result | Copies the answer. |
| How Was This Read?… | Shows how Varlig read the line: the names, units, dates and rates behind the answer. See How an answer was read. |
| Plot Function… | Draws the line as a graph. |
| Calculation Examples… | Opens the examples at the kind of calculation the line is. |
| Calculation Settings for This Note… | The note’s own number format and answer format. |
While you’re writing, the menu adds more, and the same commands are under Calculation in the menu that appears over the text:
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
| Copy with Currency Code | For an answer in a currency: writes USD 12.00 rather than $12.00. |
| Calculation Line | Expression, Subtotal or Time Point, and the line’s Answer Format: decimal places, separators, notation and currency rounding. See Options for a single line. |
| Function Help… | For a line that calls a function. |
Both menus also hold the exchange-rate commands for a note that converts money.
How Was This Read? opens at half height on iPhone and beside the answer on iPad. For a line that couldn’t be worked out, it shows the whole message and a link to examples that work.
Calculation examples
Calculation Examples — from the calculator keys, the answer menu, Calculations in the … menu while you’re editing, or a touch and hold on Calculation Block — lists ready-made lines by category, from percentages and units to dates, money, shopping lists and every function. Search for a word, and each example shows its answer worked out with your note’s settings. Insert adds it to the calc block you’re in, or starts one.
Plot a function
Plot Function… draws the line’s expression as a graph: a function such as f(x) = x^2 - 3, or the right-hand side of a line that names a value. Change the Variable, From and To, or pick one of the Common Ranges, and the graph redraws as you type. Drag across it to read the value under your finger. Plotting never changes the note.
Turn lines into a calc block
Select a few lines of ordinary text and tap Calculation Block, or choose Convert to Calculation Block from the menu over the selection, to put them in a calc block.
References that follow their line
prev always reads the nearest answer above. ↑ and line2 stay attached to the line they refer to, even when you add or move lines above it:
rent = £1,450 gives £1,450.00prev / 2 gives £725.00line1 * 12 gives £17,400.00Varlig rewrites line2 to line3 when a line is inserted above it, as the Mac does. Copied calc lines keep their references when you paste them. With Update references when renaming on, in Settings › Calculations › Variables, renaming a value updates the lines below that use it once you move to another line.
Values from another note
use [[Rates]] brings the names defined in another note into this one, as on the Mac, and use vat, fee from [[Rates]] brings in only those. See Sharing values between notes.
Exchange rates and live data
Varlig downloads exchange rates on the device, from the same sources the Mac uses, as soon as a note converts money, and keeps them fresh while it’s open — and now and then in the background. Conversions work offline with the last rates it downloaded. Settings › Calculations › Exchange Rates shows when each source last updated, with Refresh Now.
Lines that look up the weather or a place work too; see Weather and places.
Pin the rates for a note
A budget agreed at today’s rates should stay at today’s rates. Pin Exchange Rates for This Note, under Calculations in the note’s … menu or in the answer menu, keeps the rates the device has now with the note. Its conversions then use those rates on every device, whatever the markets do.
A pinned note shows a small Rates pinned badge with the day, such as Rates pinned 25 Sep 2026, at the foot of the page. Tap it to see where the rates came from, and for Refresh Rates…, which lists the answers today’s rates would change before you tap Use Current Rates, or Unpin Exchange Rates. See Pin the rates for a note.
Settings for calculations
Settings › Calculations holds the same choices as the Mac’s: number format and answers, decimal places and separators, currency formatting, the summary, variables, workday hours and holidays, sales and income tax, shared definitions, exchange rates and live data. Changes apply as you make them. They’re kept on this device, while a note’s own Calculation Settings for This Note… travel with the note. See Settings for what each option does.
The scratchpad
For a sum that doesn’t belong in a note, tap the Scratchpad button (±) at the top of any note list, use the Scratchpad control in Control Center, or ask Siri for Varlig’s scratchpad. Type one sum per line and each answer appears at the end of the line:
20% of 85 gives 1712 € + 8 € gives €20.00The scratchpad has the same calculator keys as a calc block, with its own lines to refer to. Tap an answer to copy it. Save to Note turns the lines into a note with a calc block, titled with the date and time. Touch and hold it for Save to Note and Clear, which empties the pad as well, and Clear, which asks first. The scratchpad stays on this device and isn’t synced until you save it as a note.