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

Hi.
I have sort of been following this in the background. Is this a recent 
issue in LO. I frequently open csv files with numbers and copy and paste 
into other sheets and the numbers work in formulae.

Steve

On 2013-11-18 09:54, Oogie McGuire wrote:
> I'm with Charles on this one. I was the OP on the problem.
>
> Nearly all of my issues are because I have my LO spreadsheet and then a CSV file. If I open the CSV 
> file in LO it looks fine. I can't just import it into my existing spreadsheet because the data in 
> it need to go into small subsets of my big spreadsheet. So I typically copy and paste groups of 
> cells as required.
>
> What I am used to doing in Excel is copy everything in, then format the cells to be numbers and 
> they are converted to numbers and my formula work.
>
> Or if I know they are text (but there is ABSOLUTELY NO WAY TO SEE THAT IN LO) I can do a paste 
> special and that also works in excel and prevents the additional step of formatting the cells back 
> to numbers.
>
> All the discussions about the leading apostrophe are great but I still can't see it in LO nor can I 
> remove it.
>
> Yes, I got around the problem this time by creating a dummy column as described many messages ago, 
> but the fact remains that it is neither easy to change nor easy to see when numbers are formatted 
> as text in LO and coming from MsOffice this causes lots of problems.
>
> On Nov 17, 2013, at 12:49 PM, Charles Smith <chuc@chucsmith.org> wrote:
>
> > Hello,
> >
> > I can only speak for myself, but numbers get formatted as text in two ways:
> >
> > 1. Import of a tab delimited or csv file.
> >
> > 2. Spreadsheets sent to me from other users who have imported such files.
> >
> > Usually I format the import to avoid the problem, but if I just double click a csv file, it opens 
> > with the numbers formatted as text. Visually this is not a problem. But if I then decide I need to 
> > edit the sheet I either have to reimport it or reformat the numbers.
> >
> > Hope this explains how it happens to me.
> >
> > Charles
> >
> > Sent from my iPod Touch
> >
> > On Nov 17, 2013, at 12:16 PM, James E Lang <jim+lou@lang.hm> wrote:
> >
> > > I've been following this debate with great interest.
> > >
> > > One big question comes to mind: Why would someone use the apostrophe construct in the first place if he intended to 
> > > perform arithmetic calculations using the cell content? I understand ending up with a text string rather than a number 
> > > by forgetting to use VALUE() on a substring in a formula but even that seems to fall into the category of a 
> > > "cockpit error" rather than an "aircraft design flaw" as is being implied on one side of this 
> > > debate.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > Jim
> > >
> > >
> > > --
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> Eugenie (Oogie) McGuire
> Desert Weyr http://www.desertweyr.com/
> Paonia, CO USA


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