Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 1633
csv import cannot handle more than 256 columns
Last modified: 2006-12-14 17:44:06 UTC
I just tried to import a csv file with greater than 256 columns, and the spreadsheet only goes up to column IV (256 cols). The KDE spreadsheet handles this with no troubles (but MS Excel also stops at 256).
BTW - the spreadsheet I'm trying to load has 722 columns, which is greater than the 700 or so that are possible with column names of two characters or less.
The Limitations for Calc are 256 Columns, 256 Sheets and 32000 Rows. Therefore this Issue is INVALID.
Closed because INVALID.
Reopening as an enhancement request then :-P (or would you be happy for Calc to be an inferior product?)
BTW - a search on the openoffice web site for "256" or "32000" turned up nothing, so perhaps these "Limitations" should be documented somewhere accessible.
Something for Falko.
We are currently working on a concept for 32+ rows.
What about using up to 3 letters which will give: 1 letter [A-Z] 26 columns 2 letters [A-Z][A-Z] 676 columns 3 letters [A-Z][A-Z][A-Z] 17576 columns --------------------------------------- Total 18278 columns This way we can show that OOo is a superior product to MS Excel. With 4 letters there will be 475,254 columns...
QuattroPro (formerly by Borland, now owned by Corel and packaged in Corel WordPerfect Office) has columns/rows/sheets limits to 18,000 columns, 1,000,000 rows, 18,000 sheets since at least version 9. I'd guess they are something more (i.e. cols and sheets use the three-letter pointers and rows a full 16- bit word, thus the limits are probably 18,278 (as observed by Claus) and 1,048,575 rows). Reaching this limits will put OOo Calc on par with QPro. Would it make sense to even go a little further, maybe?
*** Issue 8690 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
*** Issue 14011 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
For the moment we will match MS Excel (65000 rows, 256 columns) in 2.0. Future plans cover more rows but not more columns.
*** Issue 19440 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
So why, apart from backwards compatibility with Excel, would it be so difficult to increase the column limit? If compatibility is the only issue, why not just have >256 column limit as a user sett-able feature that is disabled by default?
A customer of ours likes to paste data from our app into Excel. Switching to OO apparently won't help.
3000 columns would make our customer happy
So, any news here? Is it still on the To-Do list? (didn´t find it there) Are there any plans for OO.o 2.2 ?
As sheets currently don't have more than 256 columns it isn't possible to import more than 256 columns, that's not just related to CSV import. This issue has status RESOLVED with resolution WONTFIX and just was forgotten to close.
I realize, this is obviously not a bug. (At least not in your eyes) However I'like to ask you: where shall I put my request instead? I'like to ask, weather ODF/ISO 26300 proposes this limit, or is it a tecnical limitation? - I just heard rumors, that Excel 2007 will break it and reach behind. Other products already support more than 256 cols (i.e. KSpreak which reaches to 32k [and has of course support for csv files]) As I currently work with a 300x300 matrix, this limit is not handful in my special case and I went for an other product.
I could bet there are already at least 3 more RFEs requesting more than 256 columns. Please do an IssueTracker query.
You were right: Continuing in bug 31612 .... let's see if that works