Issue 116383 - Inconsistent treatment of zero-length string
Summary: Inconsistent treatment of zero-length string
Status: CONFIRMED
Alias: None
Product: Calc
Classification: Application
Component: open-import (show other issues)
Version: OOo 3.2.1
Hardware: PC Windows 7
: P3 Normal (vote)
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: AOO issues mailing list
QA Contact: mj95148
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2011-01-09 22:14 UTC by sjmachin
Modified: 2017-05-20 10:45 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

See Also:
Issue Type: DEFECT
Latest Confirmation in: ---
Developer Difficulty: ---

Attachments
XLSX file demonstrating treatment of zero-length string (9.78 KB, application/vnd.ms-excel)
2011-01-09 22:19 UTC, sjmachin 		no flags Details
Excel vs. Calc (29.68 KB, image/jpeg)
2013-10-06 07:31 UTC, Edwin Sharp 		no flags Details
Add an attachment (proposed patch, testcase, etc.)

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Description sjmachin 2011-01-09 22:14:57 UTC 
(a) Importing an Excel XLSX or XLS file that contains a zero-length string:

If cell is a zero-length string result of a formula (simplest example: =""), it
works OK: COUNTA(cell) -> 1, ISBLANK(cell) -> FALSE, ISTEXT(cell) -> TRUE.

However if cell is not the result of a formula (e.g. entered manually in Excel
UI by typing '<Enter> or by copy a formula and Paste Special without formula),
it treats it like a blank/empty cell: COUNTA(cell) -> 0, ISBLANK(cell) -> TRUE,
ISTEXT(cell) -> FALSE.

(b) There appears to be no way of manually entering a non-formula zero-length
string through the Calc UI: 

(b1) Typing '<Enter> results in a 1-length string containing the apostrophe.

(b2) Copy a cell with ="" formula and Paste Special (no formula) results in a
blank/empty cell.
Comment 1 sjmachin 2011-01-09 22:19:01 UTC 
Created attachment 75517 [details]
XLSX file demonstrating treatment of zero-length string
Comment 2 Edwin Sharp 2013-10-06 07:31:22 UTC 
Created attachment 81713 [details]
Excel vs. Calc
Comment 3 Edwin Sharp 2013-10-06 07:32:30 UTC 
Confirmed with Excel 2007 and Calc Rev. 1525015 Win 7
Comment 4 Marcus 2017-05-20 10:45:24 UTC 
Reset the assignee to the default "issues@openoffice.apache.org".