Description: See the Steps below Steps to Reproduce: Insert each of the following sequence of numbers, in a row or column, then select each sequence and drag by the corner to continue the pattern: 1) 1,1 2) 1,empty,1,empty 3) 1,1,2,2 4) 1,empty,1,empty,2,empty,2,empty 5) 1 6) ab Actual Results: I show only the continuation of the sequence as produced by Calc: 1) 1,1,1,1... OK 2) 2,empty,2,empty,3,empty,3,empty .... NOT OK, inconsistent 3) 2,2,3,3,3,3,4,4,4,4... NOT OK, because inconsistent with initial "1,1" 4) 2,empty,2,empty,3,empty,3,empty,3,empty,3,empty,4,empty,4,empty,4,empty,4,empty NOT OK, as in 3) 5) 2,3,4 NOT OK, inconsistent with next, and because it's not a reference to expect to increase automatically by 1 6) ab,ab,ab Expected Results: 1) 1,1,1,1... 2) 1,empty,1,empty,1,empty,1,empty .... 3) 3,3,4,4,... 4) 3,empty,3,empty,4,empty,4,... 5) 1,1,1,... I recognize that the case for this is more debatable. 6) ab,ab,ab,... Reproducible: Always User Profile Reset: No Additional Info: Version: 25.2.5.2 (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community Build ID: 03d19516eb2e1dd5d4ccd751a0d6f35f35e08022 CPU threads: 2; OS: Windows 10 X86_64 (10.0 build 19045); UI render: Skia/Raster; VCL: win Locale: en-US (en_US); UI: en-US Calc: threaded
reproducible Version: 25.8.0.1 (X86_64) Build ID: 127f2cf27c25aaac008a1045ebfed22015cb3064 CPU threads: 4; OS: Windows 10 X86_64 (build 19045); UI render: Skia/Vulkan; VCL: win Locale: ja-JP (ja_JP); UI: ja-JP Calc: CL threaded I think cases 2 and 5 can be handled by using the Ctrl key in combination.
Yes, with CTRL, you can force the selected sequence to repeat no matter what pattern it had inside. But what I point out is that behaviour without CTRL is inconsistent, especially when the selection has 2 or more numbers.
To tackle the above, it's better to separate the cases with only numbers vs with numbers and empty cells. Thus I'll focus first on number-only patterns. Please let me know if I better submit a separate proposal for this. I have explored many common patterns & ideas. Here's a pattern rule that I think it's one of the simplest but also more powerful than what's currently in use: Start with the linear (arithmetic) pattern, indicated by 2 numbers that the users enters: a, b from which Calc infers d(delta)=b-a, to add to current number to get next, every time. Generalize it to 2 groups of equal count of numbers each. For instance, user enters 4 numbers, meant to be 2 groups of 2 each: a1 a2 b1 b2 where now there are 2 deltas/changes, for each pairs of numbers in corresponding positions: d1=b1-a1; d2=b2-a2 meant to be applied to numbers in current group to get the numbers of the next group. Some example patterns that are easily generated by such a rule: p1: 1,3 => 5,7,9.. (groups of 1 number each, d=2) p2: 1,1,1,3,3,3 => 5,5,5,7,7,7.. (groups of 3 numbers, d1=2, d2=2, d3=2) p3: 1,3,5,1,3,5 => 1,3,5,1,3,5.. (groups of 3 numbers, d1=d2=d3=0) p4: 1,2,3,2,4,6 => 3,6,9,4,8,12.. (groups of 3 numbers, d1=1,d2=2,d3=3) You can see that this rule covers all patterns currently possible in Calc (periodic, w/CTRL, and "increase each by 1" ) and much more. In particular, p2 is not currently possible in calc by pattern continuation. I have encountered it in practice wanting to have: 2000,2000,2000,2000,2001,2001,2001,2001... I have noticed another user (https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=157731) wanting a similar pattern with letters: A,A,A,A,B,B,B,B,C,C,C,C... which will be possible too, with my rule above, once Calc implements a way to increment letters, indefinitely (https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=65198) What if the user does not enter 2 groups of exactly same count? If 3 or more groups - then Calc can check the above still holds. If unequal groups => Calc can fall back to what it is doing now. The above rule can ge generalized to cases when empty cells are involved - but on this later. What do you think? Any chances to be implemented?