Bug 157109 - open .csv changes content
Summary: open .csv changes content
Status: RESOLVED INVALID
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Calc (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
7.3.7.2 release
Hardware: x86-64 (AMD64) Linux (All)
: medium normal
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2023-09-06 01:21 UTC by CSV
Modified: 2023-09-06 16:37 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
sample file that shows error (42.48 KB, text/plain)
2023-09-06 01:29 UTC, CSV
Details

Note You need to log in before you can comment on or make changes to this bug.
Description CSV 2023-09-06 01:21:52 UTC
Description:
Calc dialog offer an import option to "Detect Special Numbers", which cannot be turned off.

Steps to Reproduce:
1.File > Open a .csv file with numbers and text mixed in groups, select separation criteria.
2. Uncheck "detect special numbers" 
3. Uncheck ALL auto correction features 

Actual Results:
letter+text combinations looking like hex code, IE3, 2E5, 2E6 etc, are converted to decimal, or scientific notation


Expected Results:
2E22 is converted to 2E+22, etc etc etc 


Reproducible: Always


User Profile Reset: No

Additional Info:
Calc should have imported the numbers exactly like they where in the original file. 
Moreover, Paste> Paste Special > brings up the same import dialog, with the same results.
Manually checking a list with like 4000 numbers is 3$%$#!.
Comment 1 CSV 2023-09-06 01:29:58 UTC
Created attachment 189376 [details]
sample file that shows error

sample list plain text.

Upon further examination, the erroneous conversion is to scientific notation.
Comment 2 m_a_riosv 2023-09-06 09:38:19 UTC
With
Version: 7.4.7.2 (x64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 723314e595e8007d3cf785c16538505a1c878ca5
CPU threads: 16; OS: Windows 10.0 Build 22621; UI render: Skia/Raster; VCL: win
Locale: es-ES (es_ES); UI: en-US Calc: CL

Seems to work fine, disabling 'Detect special numbers'.

But there is an improvement from 7.6
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/ReleaseNotes/7.6#Calc
Import Text dialog (as CSV file or as Unformatted Text) have a new option to not detect number in scientific notation. This option is only available if "Detect special numbers" is off tdf#154131 (Laurent Balland)
Comment 3 ady 2023-09-06 13:49:57 UTC
(In reply to CSV from comment #0)
> Description:
> Calc dialog offer an import option to "Detect Special Numbers", which cannot
> be turned off.

That sentence contradicts the following:

> Actual Results:
> letter+text combinations looking like hex code, IE3, 2E5, 2E6 etc, are
> converted to decimal, or scientific notation
> 
> 
> Expected Results:
> 2E22 is converted to 2E+22, etc etc etc 
> 

It is not clear what is the intended meaning of the values: scientific notation of numbers, or something else (not a number, but text with some meaning that is not numeric).

Calc includes functions to deal with hex code, but "hex code" by itself is not a number for Calc.

Additionally, each column in the importing dialogue can be set to some other format (e.g. text) instead of a plain number.

I am setting this report as INVALID for now. If there is really a bug to report, then the report needs more clear descriptions of the importing options, the intended result and the current behavior. It should also be tested with a current version of LO before reporting (LO 7.5 or newer at the moment I'm writing this comment).

Please feel free to change the status of this report to UNCONFIRMED if relevant details of the problem can be provided.
Comment 4 CSV 2023-09-06 14:00:33 UTC
sorry... I meant that the "Expected results" should NOT be converted, just left as is, as would be indicated by the unchecking of "Detect Special Numbers",
which now has no effect on this result.
Like I wrote in my earlier correction of hex number.
Comment 5 CSV 2023-09-06 14:14:51 UTC
I forgot, or did not see, that the obscure column headings in the import columns could be changed, which indeed does the trick. 

... which should be AUTOMATIC, (indicated by blinking) when you check/uncheck the "Detect Special Numbers" box.
Comment 6 ady 2023-09-06 14:19:58 UTC
Setting as INVALID as per comment 5.
Comment 7 CSV 2023-09-06 14:25:32 UTC
is this bug a "feature"?
Comment 8 ady 2023-09-06 16:37:12 UTC
(In reply to CSV from comment #7)
> is this bug a "feature"?

There is no bug. I cannot reproduce it (also not repro in comment 2).

Additionally, the instructions or steps to reproduce, together with the expected results and actual results, were not completely clear. The version initially reported (7.3.7.2) will not receive updates, so testing with a newer version would be recommended.

In comment 5 you reported that you found out how to set the columns as text (instead of numeric value) in the import dialogue. So the importing is working as expected.

If you want to suggest a potential improvement to the import dialogue, please open a new ticket.

FWIW, your comment 5 hints at a possible way to improve it, but that is not really possible (at least in the way you presented it). The checkbox "detect special numbers" is independent from the format of (each of) the columns, as it should. There is no way to make these 2 independent conditions interact in some "automatic" way, because Calc cannot read users' mind :).

Please consider that this site is for bug reports, not for user support. You have users' mailing list and https://ask.libreoffice.org where you could also ask for confirmation when you think there is a bug or ask for help from other users, before reporting a problem here.

Still, feel free to start a new enhancement request ticket in order to suggest whichever way the import dialogue could be improved (or any other feature of LO).