Bug 149941 - Display boolean TRUE or FALSE centered
Summary: Display boolean TRUE or FALSE centered
Status: NEW
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Calc (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
7.3.4.2 release
Hardware: All All
: medium enhancement
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks: Cell-Formula
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Reported: 2022-07-10 19:23 UTC by OfficeUser
Modified: 2023-06-05 15:27 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

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Description OfficeUser 2022-07-10 19:23:50 UTC
- Enter "true" or "false" (without double quotes) into cell A1

The result is a right-aligned TRUE or FALSE.

The expected result is centered TRUE or FALSE.


Why do I request this?

- All other widely used spreadsheet applications display these boolean TRUE and FALS centere aligned. It has become a quasi standard.
I checked OnlyOffice, PlanMaker and Gnumeric. You can see the results in
https://bug-attachments.documentfoundation.org/attachment.cgi?id=181165
cell A4 for each application. (German environment, WAHR is the German word for TRUE)

- Centered alignment indicates the user, that it is a boolean display of a number and not just entered text.
Comment 1 OfficeUser 2022-07-12 07:33:26 UTC
@Eike: Do you support a patch for this issue?
Comment 2 Eike Rathke 2022-07-12 19:53:08 UTC
I don't really care.
However, with the difference between Excel (which has a distinct boolean type) and Calc (that does not have a distinct boolean type) I think it might not even be that a good idea, because for Calc it's really just a number format, any number can be formatted as BOOLEAN where 0 is displayed as FALSE and any other numeric value as TRUE. This is not possible in Excel AFAIK, as soon as a formula result changes from boolean to numeric the boolean display "format" (which it isn't) changes to the previous applied format, IIRC. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Emulating something like that would require much more than just centring a boolean display format.
Comment 3 OfficeUser 2022-07-12 21:29:06 UTC
Hello Eike,

thank you very much for your explanation. Indeed, I was not aware that Excel has a "distinct boolean type". I even found out that the comparison candidates Gnumeric, PlanMaker and OnlyOffice also have a "distinct boolean type" like Excel.

Still, I don't think this changes the issue. LibreOffice Calc also displays the *WORDS* TRUE and FALSE here. (In my opinion this has nothing to do with a "simulation" of anything).

It has become established practice that *NUMERIC VALUES* in tables are right-justified. The only reason for this is that the number of decimal places becomes clear to the viewer more quickly.

But now it is a question of how the *WORDS* TRUE or FALSE should be displayed. And for this I think centered is an absolutely reasonable default, which we should follow with LibreOffice.