Bug 165759 - FILEOPEN XLSX Formula with external link not imported correctly in certain spreadsheet
Summary: FILEOPEN XLSX Formula with external link not imported correctly in certain sp...
Status: NEW
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: filters and storage (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
3.3.0 release
Hardware: All All
: low normal
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks: XLSX-Corrupted Calc-External-Datalink
  Show dependency treegraph
 
Reported: 2025-03-15 16:24 UTC by Aron Budea
Modified: 2025-08-18 03:42 UTC (History)
1 user (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
Sample XLSX (9.47 KB, application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet)
2025-03-15 16:24 UTC, Aron Budea
Details
forum-mso-en4-144022.xlsx (26.57 KB, application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet)
2025-03-15 16:25 UTC, Aron Budea
Details
Another sample XLSX (doesn't exhibit the bug) (9.25 KB, application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet)
2025-03-15 16:26 UTC, Aron Budea
Details
Screenshot of first sample in Excel (30.51 KB, image/png)
2025-03-15 16:37 UTC, Aron Budea
Details

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Description Aron Budea 2025-03-15 16:24:57 UTC
Created attachment 199824 [details]
Sample XLSX

The attached XLSX, created from minimizing forum-mso-en4-144022.xlsx, contains an external reference in A1, and when it is opened in Excel, the formula reads something like this:
='D:\Users\Peter\Dropbox\Excel Trips\[Holiday trip planner to Alice Springs.xlsx]Sheet15'!C0
(the external link is relative, the beginning will be where the file was opened from)

Opening the same file in Calc shows this incorrect formula in A1:
=[1]sheet15!c0

Saving the file back to XLSX makes Excel complain about the file, choosing repair removes the formula, with the following message:
Removed Records: Formula from /xl/worksheets/sheet1.xml part

Observed using LO 25.8.0.0.alpha0+ (9299d425f3ed941d983f68d6dc1e979b4d4d1060) and 3.3.0 / Windows.

The link, as exists in xl/externalLinks/_rels/externalLink1.xml.rels inside the original archive is:
Users/Peter/Dropbox/Excel%20Trips/Holiday%20trip%20planner%20to%20Alice%20Springs.xlsx

The formula that is stored in the sheet's XML file in A1 is: [1]Sheet15!C0
Apparently, this is normal notation. Also attaching a different sample Excel XLSX, where the external link is correctly imported and saved in Calc.
Comment 1 Aron Budea 2025-03-15 16:25:41 UTC
Created attachment 199825 [details]
forum-mso-en4-144022.xlsx
Comment 2 Aron Budea 2025-03-15 16:26:52 UTC
Created attachment 199826 [details]
Another sample XLSX (doesn't exhibit the bug)
Comment 3 Aron Budea 2025-03-15 16:37:59 UTC
Created attachment 199827 [details]
Screenshot of first sample in Excel
Comment 4 m_a_riosv 2025-03-16 00:17:01 UTC
Maybe in relation with
https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=161470 
Implement implicit intersection operator "@" like Excel's

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/implicit-intersection-operator-ce3be07b-0101-4450-a24e-c1c999be2b34
Implicit intersection operator: @
Comment 5 Aron Budea 2025-08-18 03:42:57 UTC
Actually, the reason is the invalid cell reference: there's no 0th row, so C0 doesn't point to a cell.
What Calc does differently is that it doesn't identify such a literal as any reference, while Excel does, it's just out of range.

Let's mark as confirmed, since Calc shouldn't corrupt the file, but reduce priority, it probably only occurs very rarely.