GSOD 2020 - Possible Error in Help pages

Ronnie / Olivier,

Section 6.18.37 in the Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) Version 1.2 contains the following statement: “cumulative is a Logical parameter … If omitted, FALSE() is assumed.”.

The 7.1 Help description of this function states that “The cumulative distribution function is the default if no value is specified for this parameter”. It also states that if cumulative is set to anything other than FALSE or 0, then you get the cumulative distribution function. Therefore, there is a discrepancy between the Help description and the ODF.

Moving on to the software, the following fragment of a spreadsheet demonstrates its behaviour. (Note: image wont be visible via mailing list)

This shows that the software is defaulting cumulative to 0, in accordance with the ODF.

Consequently, it looks to me as if the help page is wrong in this respect. It should be changed to say that the default is the probability density function.

Olivier, if you agree, would you like me to make the change via Gerrit?

Regards,

Steve

Hello Steve and Olivier,

I have found some more errors in help pages:

For MINIFS
<https://help.libreoffice.org/7.1/en-US/text/scalc/01/func_minifs.html?&DbPAR=CALC&System=UNIX>
the
2nd example in "Using regular expressions and nested functions" section the
regex is about "book" but description states "pen".

Also in POISSON.DIST
<https://help.libreoffice.org/7.1/en-US/text/scalc/01/04060184.html?DbPAR=CALC#bm_id2953985>
the
function says "C" parameter is optional but that is not true. I tried it in
Calc.

Please look into the above.

Regards,
Ronnie Gandhi
Undergraduate at Computer Science and Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee
+91-07874243430

Hi Ronnie,

With regards to the MINIFS problem, I agree with you. I propose to keep a list of these minor changes to the help that are identified during the GSOD20 work and will discuss with Olivier how best to fix them.

You are also correct about the POISSON.DIST problem. This will be added to the list above. However, in this case, there is a slightly more significant issue - the Function Wizard contains text which indicates that the parameter is optional when, in fact, it is required. I will raise a bug report on this.

Regards,

Steve

Ronnie / Olivier,

As promised I have created an initial list of issues with the help files that have been noticed so far during the GSOD2020 Functions Wiki work.

This list can be found in the GSOD2020/WIKI folder in NextCloud, file name "Help pages - problems noticed during GSOD20.odt". We can discuss these during our weekly Tuesday meetings as required.

Ronnie, please have a quick look and see if I've missed any of the issues that you have raised so far. If you spot any more, please carry on emailing them to us. I can do a quick filter / check before adding the issue to the list.

Regards,

Steve

Hello Steve and Olivier,

I found another error in the help pages.

For the DURATION function, there is a pinpoint which is not needed I
believe.

*The functions whose names end with _ADD or _EXCEL2003 return the same
results as the corresponding Microsoft Excel 2003 functions without the
suffix. Use the functions without suffix to get results based on
international standards.*

Do look into it and see if you find it useless as well.

Regards,
Ronnie Gandhi
Undergraduate at Computer Science and Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee
+91-07874243430

Hello Olivier and Ronnie,

I agree that the note about _ADD and _EXCEL2003 does not appear to be relevant to this particular function (DURATION).

I have added this to our list of help issues to be addressed on completion of GSOD20.

I'm looking forward to speaking to you both later.

Regards,

Steve

Hello Steve and Olivier,

I found one more useless text in the FV function.

"In the LibreOfficeDev Calc functions, parameters marked as "optional" can
be left out only when no parameter follows. For example, in a function with
four parameters, where the last two parameters are marked as "optional",
you can leave out parameter 4 or parameters 3 and 4, but you cannot leave
out parameter 3 alone."

Either we add this in all functions with optional parameters which I think
is not possible or we remove it from here.

What do you guys think?

Regards,
Ronnie Gandhi
Undergraduate at Computer Science and Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee
+91-07874243430

Hi Ronnie, Steve

Removed from the Help.
https://gerrit.libreoffice.org/c/help/+/105531

Thanks
Olivier

Thanks Ronnie.

I'm not even sure the statement is 100% correct if you look across the full set of Calc functions. For example, in the case of DCOUNT(), you may omit a value for the 2nd argument but must include a value for the 3rd argument.

I'll give some thought as to how to handle these statements in the Help.

For the wiki, please omit the statements for now.

Regards,

Steve

Hello Steve and Olivier,

GETPIVOTDATA function seems to be an important one but there are no
examples for it on the help page.

I'll add some on the wiki pages though.

Regards,
Ronnie Gandhi
Undergraduate at Computer Science and Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee
+91-07874243430

Hi Ronnie
Pick the example in the Help pages. All is there.

https://help.libreoffice.org/7.1/en-US/text/scalc/guide/datapilot_createtable.html?DbPAR=CALC#bm_id3148491

Regards
Olivier

Hello Olivier and Ronnie,

Thanks for that information. I have made a note on our list of help issues that the description for the GETPIVOTDATA() function does not currently include an example of its usage.

Regards,

Steve

Hello Steve and Olivier,

Along with GETPIVOTDATA HLOOKUP's help also has no example section.

Regards,
Ronnie Gandhi
Undergraduate at Computer Science and Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee
+91-07874243430

Thanks Ronnie.

I've added HLOOKUP to our list.

Regards,

Steve

Hello Olivier and Steve,

I believe the SHEET function has error in both ODF section and help pages.
The function states that it returns sheet number or name string for the
referenced sheet (either by cell or by name area or a sheet name). But I
believe it *can only return sheet number not sheet name*.

MS Excel's documentation seems to not have that error and Calc's function
is also working accordingly.

Regards,
Ronnie Gandhi
Undergraduate at Computer Science and Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee
+91-07874243430

Hi Ronnie,

An initial check indicates that you are correct. (The code appears to only return a number)

This means that the help is inaccurate to suggest that the function may return a string representing a sheet name; I'll add it to our list.

Please make sure that the wiki page is correct in this respect and include a comment to reflect that Calc's implementation is not strictly in accordance with ODF 1.2.

The good news is that I don't see any error in the Function Wizard's description of the function.

Regards,

Steve

Hello Olivier and Steve,

The function WORKDAY in help pages and also its implementation has only the
first 3 parameters whereas ODF section has 4 parameters. Also ODF mentions
passing {0;0;0;0;0;1;1} or {1;0;0;0;0;0;1} or even this {0;0;0;1;1;1;1} as
the Holiday parameter which when I tried does not change the result.

I have stated that "Calc's implementation of WORKDAY function is not
strictly in accordance with ODF 1.2." in wiki.

Calc's function works just like MS Excel's function does.

Regards,
Ronnie Gandhi
Undergraduate at Computer Science and Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee
+91-07874243430

For this issue:

WORKDAY.INTL seems linked to WORKDAY of ODF based on the parameters but
Weekend accepts 1 to 17 or 0000011 type of string.

So both functions are somehow similar to ODF function WORKDAY. So which one
to link?

The function WORKDAY in help pages and also its implementation has only
the first 3 parameters whereas ODF section has 4 parameters. Also ODF
mentions passing {0;0;0;0;0;1;1} or {1;0;0;0;0;0;1} or even this
{0;0;0;1;1;1;1} as the Holiday parameter which when I tried does not
change the result.

I have stated that "Calc's implementation of WORKDAY function is not
strictly in accordance with ODF 1.2." in wiki.

Calc's function works just like MS Excel's function does.

Regards,
Ronnie Gandhi
Undergraduate at Computer Science and Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee
+91-07874243430

Regards,
Ronnie

Hi Ronnie,

Please link both pages to the ODF's WORKDAY function but explain that:

(1) Calc's WORKDAY function does not support the optional Workdays argument that is specified in the ODF. Also, with regards to the issues you raise concerning the example definitions of the work week, please would you note them on the Discussion page for now and I'll look into them when I review the page.

(2) Calc's WORKDAY.INTL function swaps the order of the optional Holidays and Workdays arguments that are specified in the ODF; it also extends the definition of the Workdays argument compared to the ODF. Calc's WORKDAY.INTL function is consistent with Excel's function of the same name for improved inter-operability.

Regards,

Steve

Sure Steve thanks. Will do that now.

Regards,