Re: [libreoffice-users] Re: Stuck with 3.3 forever?

On 12/03/2011 04:39 PM, David S. Crampton wrote:
> Expanding a bit on Jonny's concatenation:
>
> A1: "" (null string)
> A2: 1 (numeric)
> A3: =A1+A2 displays #VALUE
> A4: =A1 & A2 displays left-aligned "1". It is a text result.
> A5: =A2 + A4 displays a right-aligned 2. It is a numeric result.
>
> Ergo, the "+" operator gave #VALUE result when combining a null string 
> and a numeric but gives a numeric when combining a <text string which 
> can be interpreted as a numeric> with a numeric.
>
> Per my mini-sermon (earlier today) on debugging and preferring strict 
> type-based behavior, I would prefer A5 to also display #VALUE.
The default behavior appears to be an implicit type conversion of string 
to a numeric data type when it is possible. Either to an integer or 
decimal as needed. I tried your test using 1.356 (US format) in A2 and got

A# = #VALUE
A4 = 1.356 as string (left justified)
A5 = 2.356 as decimal (right justified)

If the there is any character that can not implicitly convert to a 
number, an error is thrown. This  probably dates back to the original 
spreadsheets (Visicalc and Lotus 123). For consistency one must follow 
some of the original, even if stupid, decisions so the average user is 
not confused and spreadsheets can be easily imported into other 
spreadsheet programs.

--
Jay Lozier
jslozier@gmail.com


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