Re: [libreoffice-users] IF w/ Regular Expression

2013/2/8 Brian Barker <b.m.barker@btinternet.com>:
> At 14:05 07/02/2013 -0800, Joel Madero wrote:
> > I have enabled regular expressions in LibreOffice settings but still am
> > unable to get this one to work. Here is my line:
> > IF(N200="*regression*",1,0)
> >
> > Not sure what I'm missing.
>
>
> What you are missing, I think, is defining your problem!  You have fallen
> into the error that is not at all uncommon amongst enquirers.  You have
> shown us a formula which you tell us does not work.  You have not told us
> what you were hoping it would do for you, leaving us to guess from the
> formula itself.  But the one thing we can be absolutely sure of - we have
> your assurance for this - is that this formula does not define what you are
> trying to do, since it does not succeed.
>
> In any case, I don't know what regular expression you think you have
> supplied here: the asterisk is used to match zero or more of the character
> preceding it.  There is no character before your first asterisk; as regards
> the second, are you expecting a match for *regressio, along with
> *regression, *regressionn, *regressionnn, and so on?
>
> The IF() function is a bit of a red herring.  The essence of your formula is
> the logical expression N200="*regression*".  This has a logical result
> (which, incidentally, is identical to the result of your IF).  But there is
> no facility to invoke regular expressions in the logical "=" operator: it
> will give the answer TRUE (or 1) if and only if the two operands are equal.
> So you should get TRUE or 1 if N200 is exactly "*regression*" and FALSE or 0
> otherwise.
>
> There are a number of functions which allow regular expressions (see the
> help text), but "=" is not one of them.
>
> I trust this helps.
>
> Brian Barker


Very funny indeed.
The rest of us, who hopefully are thinking creatures, realise that he
accidently gave an example of ”wild cards” while talking about regular
expressions. Since he was talking about regular expressions all the
time, I think most people would assume that that is what he meant, and
that the example probably was a typo or that he don't know the
difference. Yet…

Anyway, … never mind, I don't have time for this.

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