Hi, I tried your example with the Fedora text editor and I was able to reproduce the behaviour you are describing. The way out is to tell Calc what type of data you have in the columns before you hit the "OK" button of the import panel. To do so, make sure the arrows are placed at the right place (you can move them with the mouse or click on them to make them disappear) and then click on where it says "Standard" in the column headings and select the type of data you have from the pulldown just above (by default it should say "Standard"). My only issue was with the numbers (I use a "," as a decimal separator) so I had to perform a search and replace to change the decimal points to a comma (you can do this in the text editor or in Calc) - you must do this if you are not using the locale-defined separator in your text because otherwise Calc will see the "numbers" as pure text.
To answer your other question (fixed-width vs. Tab), "fixed-width" is a way for you to define where the fields are in your text (this is why you have the little arrows); tab-delimited (you can also select other delimiters) implies the fields on a line are separated by a tab (\t) character (or comma, semi-colon, space, etc from the selection). I hope this helps. Rémy Gauthier. Le dimanche 26 mars 2017 à 11:50 -0400, Doug McNutt a écrit : > Here are three lines copied from a LibreOffice Calc page > > 03/24/17 03/24/17 EPMT p $16.96 COMM Consumer Cellular > > 03/24/17 03/24/17 EPMT p $159.64 HOUS Waste Management > > 03/24/17 03/29/17 EPMT p $330.65 COMM Pair Networks > > The first two columns are dates formatted using numbers/Date/Format > 01/01/04 Default to English (USA) Format code MM/DD/YY. They are > > formatted that way for the entire length of possible columns. It's two > columns to allow for sent and deposited dates. > > > The third column is empty. The fourth column is a type of payment, here > > Electronic Payment. The fifth column is one letter, here Paid, the sixth > > column F is formatted as number-currency. the rest is two more comment > columns formatted as text. > > > I'm going to copy those three rows and install the contents right here: > > 03/24/17 03/24/17 EPMT p $16.96 COMM Consumer Cellular > > 03/24/17 03/24/17 EPMT p $159.64 HOUS Waste Management > > 03/24/17 03/29/17 EPMT p $330.65 COMM Pair Networks > > > Now I'm going to copy the information from the Ubuntu text editor "gimp" > > and paste them back into the spreadsheet. I select the cell at the upper > > left just below where I started. I copy from the text editor and ask the > spreadsheet to re-enter the data. > > > I get an "Import" window. It suggests separator options fixed width and > tab. I don't understand the "fixed width". But it does show the data > with little arrows separating the columns. If I copy from the "Text > Import" window I get something that copies back in the text editor > > exactly as I would have expected. I will spare you seeing the same thing > as above. > > I click the button that seems to be correct for closing the Import > > window. The spreadsheet seems to have placed the entire block data into > > the three cells in the A column. Selecting the three A cells and doing a > copy and replace into the text editor I see this: > > "03/24/17 03/24/17 EPMT p $16.96 COMM Consumer > Cellular" (All in column A) > "03/24/17 03/24/17 EPMT p $159.64 HOUS Waste > Management" > > "03/24/17 03/29/17 EPMT p $330.65 COMM Pair Networks" > > > I get the same result if I first select a columns A through H before I > do the paste. > > Note that the entire lines have been honored with quote marks. The $ > > signs are part of the text but it matters not much because it's in the > > wrong column anyway. Note that the spaces are still the tab characters > that they have been all along. > > > I have been trying a bunch of schemes that involve copying lines of data > > from a bank into cells over on the right side and then attempting to use > > formulas that move the data to the columns I need. I see one of those = > signs in the front of the dates that just makes the date into text > > instead of the coded date it was. The $ sign gets left in the currency > > formatted column which declares it's just text and will fail to add with > other data already present. > > Using a multiple step procedure involving the Value() function and > removing the $ signs can be made to work but I have to move the data > into the spreadsheet one column at a time. Perl5 can handle the > > modifications to remove the $ and = signs when the actual source is a > bank but I still have to use =right(8) on the dates to persuade the > > spreadsheet to accept what it put out in the first place. The likes of > > 03/24/17 as text with nothing at the ends always gets something added > that makes it into text. (Right now I'm safe from some bank offering > 3/24/17 without the leading zero. But. . .) > > > I'm pretty good with perl5. Does anybody have some experience in getting > > bank information into text that LibreOffice Calc will accept? It just > takes too long to do everything one column at a time. Is the whole > problem a bug in the spreadsheet code? > > -- To unsubscribe e-mail to: users+unsubscr...@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
