I recently noticed that a complicated spreadsheet that had previously functioned correctly was giving wrong answers without warning. After the usual wailing and gnashing of teeth, I traced the problem to a cell containing "=C4-SUM(G11:G1016)”. Further experimentation produced the following simple version of the problem:
(1) Let A1=1, A2=2, and A3=sum(A1:A2); A3 computes here as 3. (2) Insert cell A1 shift right. (3) Observe: A3 now computes as 2. This is obvious in this case but far from obvious in a complicated spreadsheet, where the connection between A1 and A3 is obscure. In such cases, For an insert that would cause an error in a reference like A1:A2, I believe that Calc should issue a warning something like, “WARNING: Insert may change the answer computed in A3. Do you want to proceed?” I further think there should be no default and the user should be forced to select either “Yes” or “No”. This was observed in LO 4.3.5.2, LO 4..5.0.0.alpha0 2015-02-05 00:36:56, and MS Excell 2003 sp3. Should this be filed as a bug report or a feature request? If yes, which, and what message should display? Wikipedia says, "A software bug is an error, flaw, failure, or fault in a computer program or system that causes it to produce an incorrect or unexpected result, or to behave in unintended ways.” I think this fits that definition. However, it may qualify as a feature request, because the fix is less than obvious (and it has been around for so long). Enjoy, Spencer -- To unsubscribe e-mail to: [email protected] 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
