Re: [libreoffice-users] Problem with text formatting in Report.

On 5/16/19 11:12 AM, Johnny Rosenberg wrote:
> Den tors 16 maj 2019 kl 00:22 skrev Girvin Herr <gherrl@fastmail.com>:
>
> > Greetings,
> >
> > I am using LibreOffice 5.3.4.2 on Slackware Linux 14.2 (K4.4.75).
> >
> > I have a database with a text field which may or may not be null. What I
> > want to do is to prefix a dash "-" before the text if the text field is
> > not null. At first, I tried this format:
> >
> > ;;;"-"@
> >
> > Somewhere, not by me, it got changed to:
> >
> > [>0]"";[<0]"";"";"-"@
> >
> > However, this does not work. I get the text when not null, but not the
> > dash in either case.
> If I format a cell like your first example and enter a letter in that cell,
> let's say ”k”, I get:
> -k
>
> If I enter a number, the cell remains blank. Is this the behaviour you are
> looking for?
>
> The format string doesn't change if I don't change it.
>
> If I set it to [>0]"";[<0]"";"";"-"@ I get the same result, and I should
> since the two means exactly the same thing.
>
> Can you give an example that doesn't work?
>
>
>
> Kind regards
>
> Johnny Rosenberg
>
>
>
> > Is there another way to do this?
> >
> > Thanks.
> >
> > Girvin Herr
> >
> >
> >
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Johnny,

Thanks for your response.

I should have been more clear in my original posting. I am not trying to 
do this in Calc. I am trying to do it in Base Report Generator.

I have a text field in the database which I want to prefix with a dash 
(-) if, and only if, there is text (not NULL) in that field.

None of the examples you gave will work as I expect (and as the number 
formatting help implies) in my context (with Base Report Generator). No 
matter how I format it, the result is strange and almost indeterminate. 
Sometimes if the text field is alpha-numeric, the result is "-" without 
the text. Other times it is the text without the "-" prefix. Sometimes 
when the text field is numeric-only, the result is the text without the 
"-". Sometimes not one of these. As I said, indeterminate results.

Not getting a number when encountered is not what I am looking for. In 
all cases, if there is text there, I want it to be in the report. Also, 
I do not want the dash prefix, if there is no text to be in the report.

So, I am not sure what is going on. It almost looks like a bug with the 
unexpected results. It also appears the formatting for the Report 
Generator behaves differently than for Calc.

Thanks.

Girvin



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