Re: [libreoffice-users] Calc - failing search on numbers

At 11:39 09/04/2015 +0100, Ian Seeks wrote:
> I've got a table of numbers of general format which i change (using 
> Format/Cells) to make the display of numbers less than 10 have a 
> leading zero. I cannot search for "07" etc as it will not find it, 
> it will only search for "7" which finds me all the numbers with a 
> "7" in it. How can i force the search to look for "07"?

In the Find & Replace dialogue, tick the "Entire cells" option and 
search for "7". This will find cells with the numeric value 7, even 
if displayed as "7", "07", 007" etc., but will not find 17 or 72.

Alternatively, you should ask yourself whether you really need 
numbers here (so that you can calculate using them) or perhaps 
instead identifiers that just happen to be made up of digits. If the 
latter, you would be better (as has already been suggested) having 
your values as text. With the text string "07" in a cell, you can 
easily search for "07".

Note that digit strings are not always numbers:

o The Zip code for City Hall in Boston, USA, is 02201; that's not two 
thousand two hundred and one, nor can you write it "2201" or "2,201" 
or "002201". What does it mean if the Zip code for one location is 
the sum of the codes for two others? (Answer: nothing!)

o My telephone area code (here in London, UK) is "020"; that's not twenty.

o If your (unwise) PIN was set as "0987", you could not get money out 
of an ATM using "987" or "00987". Nor do you get more money by having 
a "larger" PIN.

o James Bond was not Agent Seven.

I trust this helps.

Brian Barker


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