Re: [libreoffice-users] CALC convert text to numbers

On Mon, 11 Nov 2013 02:56:51 +0200
Ady <ady-sf@hotmail.com> wrote:

> As a simple user, I see this "hidden" addition of the initial single 
> quotation mark as a _BUG_, and as one of those basic "features" that 
> work poorly in LibreOffice Calc than in several other spreadsheet 
> tools. I don't know if this behavior can be "corrected" or improved.

As far as I understand it, the "hidden" initial quotation mark is what
marks the contents of the cell as text. This is the same in MS Excel,
IIRC. So basically, this isn't a bug, but intended behaviour, to give
you a way to specify that a number should be interpreted as text and
not as a number.

For example, if you enter "0283", the leading zero will always be
stripped, because it is interpreted as a number and the leading zero is
superfluous, but if you enter "'0283", then this means you have entered
a text string and the leading zero is kept. The format of the cell
doesn't change this behavior, it only changes the *display* of the
contents, not the interpretation of the contents. At least, as I
understand it.

Paul

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