What about: * Count headlines in current level
#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp (save-restriction (org-narrow-to-subtree) (1- (length (org-element-map (org-element-parse-buffer) 'headline (lambda (x) 1))))) #+END_SRC #+RESULTS: : 5 ** one ** two *** three **** four ** five This counts the headline you are in, so I subtract one from the total count. Marcin Borkowski writes: > Hello, > > I'd like to count the number of children (alternatively, number of all > descendants) of an Org headline. Is there a ready-made function for > that? If not, would using org-forward-heading-same-level and similar > functions in Lisp code be a good idea? > > TIA, -- Professor John Kitchin Doherty Hall A207F Department of Chemical Engineering Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA 15213 412-268-7803 @johnkitchin http://kitchingroup.cheme.cmu.edu