Re: [libreoffice-users] can't prevent Calc from modifying the number I type into a column

At 20:32 12/09/2018 -0400, Art Noname wrote:
> It's a shame that I can't enter numbers with paste, or paste special.

You can. Use Paste Special... if necessary only if your data source 
is itself a spreadsheet and the values risk arriving with a numerical 
format associated.

> The raw data is in html format from the web, so importing it as text 
> might be viable.

It is.

> Indeed, 127.000 and 127.7 are the same number, however, it seems 
> that when I enter 127.700, there should be a way to prevent the 
> spreadsheet from formatting it for its own internal use. I believe 
> this was my original question.

And the answer was to format your cell range as text.

> Last evening, I figured out that I could add .00001 to each 
> frequency, which would allow me to search properly, since it's a 
> simple math function, it can be done automatically. So, I enter 
> 127.700 MHz, then add 10Hz to each number. The search function does 
> work this way.

Sounds messy and error-prone.

> I had never thought of formatting the columns BEFORE I pasted the 
> raw data into the spreadsheet!!!

That should have been on page one of your spreadsheet beginner's 
manual. Wasn't it?

> I have no problem working with text instead of numbers, ...

Good.

> I can do the text part on a separate sheet from the main data. The 
> main sheet is getting more complicated as I add features, so the 
> move to a separate 'text only' sheet might be the answer.

You probably don't need to. As suggested earlier, just use VALUE(Xn) 
where you would otherwise use Xn to extract real numbers from your 
text values as necessary in formulae.

Brian Barker  


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