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

On Sun, 17 Nov 2013 11:33:36 -0600
Charles Smith <chuc@chucsmith.org> wrote:

> On 11/15/13 4:11 PM, Paul wrote:
> > the behaviour is correct, and consistant with other
> > spreadsheet programs.
> Sorry, no. The behavior may be correct, but it is not completely 
> consistent with other spreadsheet programs. At least it is not 
> completely consistent with how Excel implements this. In particular,
> I still am unable to simply paste special a cell containing the
> number 1 onto a cell (or range of cells) containing a text
> representation of a number and, using the multiply choice, have that
> cell's contents converted to a number from text. This is what is done
> widely among Excel users.
You are confusing two issues here. The first regards the apostrophe
marking cell contents as text when they appear to be numbers. The
second is the issue of allowing pasting and multiplying over cells
containing a text representation of a number.

You are correct in that the second issue is not consistent with Excel.
However, I was speaking specifically of the first issue when I said
that the behaviour is correct and consistant. In this discussion a few
people have confused the two, thinking that the apostrophe is somehow
connected to, and possibly the cause of, the second issue. I'm trying
to say that the apostrophe is a separate issue, and is *not* a bug, as
some have suggested. The apostrophe shows correct behaviour, purely in
and of itself. As a separate issue, Calc does not allow one to paste
and multiply over cells that contain numbers as text, and that,
completely aside from the issue of the apostrophe, is inconsistant with
Excel.

Just trying to clear up some of the confusion.

Paul

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