Re: [libreoffice-users] Big decimal numbers as text

At 20:34 05/07/2017 -0400, Doug McNutt wrote:
> First post was on Sat, 29 Apr 2017 17:56:37 -0400
> "Big decimal numbers as text"
> And: Thank you for the replies last time. You helped get a bit further on.

I see only one previous (public) reply, very probably because you 
hijacked another thread, so anyone not reading that thread would not 
have seen your plea.

> '20170428153706454600(works ok)   `20170428153706454600(fails)

Er, exactly: what you need is a plain, unvarnished typewriter 
apostrophe - nothing else will do.

> Using menu item, insert-special character

Aaargh! The easiest way to get an "X" is to type it on the keyboard. 
The easiest way to get a "7" is to type it on the keyboard. The 
easiest way to get a "$" is to type it on the keyboard. The easiest 
way to get a plain, unvarnished typewriter apostrophe is to type it 
on the keyboard.

> That seems to work but it sometimes doesn't.

The only reason this might not work is if you have LibreOffice set to 
replace single quotes (apostrophes) with smart quotes. If that is the 
problem, either:
o Go to Tools | AutoCorrect Options... | Localized Options | Single 
quotes, and remove the tick from Replace (perhaps temporarily), or
o Go to Edit | Undo (or Ctrl+Z) immediately after typing the 
apostrophe to remove the automatic "correction".

> If I choose a cell and declare its format to be Number-Scientific, ...

Your problem is that you are handling something that looks like a 
number but is actually (to you) a text string. Telling Calc that you 
want it handled as a number is asking for trouble. Why would you do that?

> I don't see any way to declare a cell as number, 63 bit binary 
> integer with leading sign.

Again, this is not what you want. Rereading your original query, I 
see that you are trying to enter long strings of digits that look 
like numbers (as your example above) but which you want handled *as 
text*. Stop trying to tell Calc that you want them seen as numbers!

> I suspect that LibreOffice does what Excel does; all numbers use 
> IEEE floating point.

This is irrelevant: you are handling text, not numbers. (Did I mention that?)

> My recommendation for repair is to remove the possibility of space 
> characters being introduced anywhere.

I'm not sure what you think need repairing. As to space characters, 
am I not to be able to enter "Doug McNutt" into a cell - with its 
helpful space? Am I not to be able to enter a telephone number, also 
appropriately spaced?

Some thoughts:

1. Think of your example value above: 20170428153706454600. Is there 
any sense in which this means to you (or your bank) twenty 
quintillion, one hundred and seventy quadrillion, four hundred and 
twenty-eight trillion, one hundred and fifty three billion, seven 
hundred and six million, four hundred and fifty-four thousand, six 
hundred? Surely not (or are you richer than I imagine?). If you don't 
believe me, tell me what it would mean if the next label the bank 
provided was exactly half this? That is the sort of question you can 
ask about numbers, but not about text. These are text strings that 
just happen to be formed of digits.

2. You say previous replies helped, but you make no reference to what 
happened when you tried the advice to format the cells as Text before 
entering values.

3. You say previous replies helped, but you make no reference to what 
happened when you tried the advice to use Edit | Paste Special... (or 
Ctrl+Shift+V) instead of ordinary Paste.

4. Instead of using copy and paste at all, save the source text first 
as a plain text (.txt or .csv) file and use Insert | Sheet From 
File... to browse to and import the data. The Text Import window 
provides a very flexible system for getting data into Calc the way 
you need it - even including being able to set the "Column type" to 
Text. (Oh, *please* use Text for these strings of digits.) The new 
data will appear on a new sheet, but it is a simple task to move it 
to an existing sheet (probably using ordinary Paste this time).

I trust this helps.

Brian Barker


--
To unsubscribe e-mail to: users+unsubscribe@global.libreoffice.org
Problems? http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/how-to-unsubscribe/
Posting guidelines + more: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette
List archive: http://listarchives.libreoffice.org/global/users/
All messages sent to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be deleted