William Case wrote:
My problem was caused by two fixable things:
1) Nowhere can I find reference to the need to use =N() in spite of the
formatting as you suggested. In fact, examples of functions in Help
look like Help is using ' or " to turn references into dateStrings (à la
Bash).
Well, Help is minimalistic, but the function reference is quite well. It
just says what a simple function like N() or T() does and more complex
functions like DSUM,DMAX,... have examples.
A Calc-specific help, full of excellent examples::
http://www.openofficetips.com
Any old Book dealing with similar spreadsheets (Excel'95, Staroffice 5)
will describe >90% of todays functionality. What is confusing you, is
formatting. Don't apply any number-formats until you got your
calculation model right, because formats may hide the real values you
are calculating with. An example: =NOW(), formatted as date, as time and
without formatting.
A cell-function can take and return only three types of data: strings,
numbers and errors. In particular there are no "date-values".
N() apllies no formatting at all, it returnes an unformatted number
while converting a string or error #NA to zero, like T() converts a
number to "" and anything else to an unformatted string.
A number (like the one returned by TODAY()) is *untouched*.
Unfortunately TODAY() and NOW() apply some magic formatting to an
unformatted cell.
2) I tried to make experimental changes in the formulae in the formula
window of the formula tool bar. As it turns out, OO Calc didn't effect
these changes after Entering. However, when I later wiped out all my
formulae and retyped the whole formula anew for each experiment in a
cell , the changes where read quickly. Same when I started over using
the Formula Wizard.
So, -- are the above two problems a reportable bug or my stupidity?
Can't reproduce this without an example. You may be fooled by formatting
again.
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