Bug 73222 - EDITING: Copying Value with Date and then Pasting with Paste Only Number Should Give Unformatted Date Number
Summary: EDITING: Copying Value with Date and then Pasting with Paste Only Number Shou...
Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 81346
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Calc (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
4.1.4.2 release
Hardware: All All
: low enhancement
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard: BSA
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2014-01-02 12:26 UTC by Fernando
Modified: 2014-07-16 20:01 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
Testcase (9.93 KB, application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.spreadsheet)
2014-01-07 23:17 UTC, Fernando
Details

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Description Fernando 2014-01-02 12:26:44 UTC
Problem description: 

Steps to reproduce:
1.Insert text 02-01-2014 in cell A1; 
2.Copy cell with formula =value(A1) to cell B1;
3.Format cell B1 as date;
4. Copy cell B1;
5. Paste only values (or only text, result is the same)to cell C1;
6. Copy result is a blank cell 

Current behavior: paste only value gives a blank cell

Expected behavior: paste only value of the formula with data format 02-01-2014 or at least the value 41641 

              
Operating System: Windows 7
Version: 4.1.4.2 release
Comment 1 Dominique Boutry 2014-01-07 15:16:17 UTC
Hi. Investigations under libO 4.2.0.1 rc1 on Win7 :

- on my (english) system, the format of 02-01-2014 is "number", not "date" neither "text" ; explanation in Tools/Options/Language Settings/Language, set to "D/M/Y;D/M;D-M" : not "D-M-Y", so OK. Is it the same in your "language dependant" settings ?
- I admit tha "number" is a questionnable choice, it should have been "text" ("number" only if the text is a well-formed number).
- the function VALUE(x) waits a "text" argument (see online doc), so it rightly fails in "=value(A1)" in cell B1 containing "Err:502". Do you confirm ?
- no place in LibO documentation suggests that a cell in error should contain in background the offending content, so the copy/paste from B1 to C1 had no chance to result in a "date" or "number" format. The copy/paste special (value only) rightly results in a blank cell.

IMHO, the current (and only) bug resides in the bad automatic formatting of 02-01-2014.
Comment 2 Fernando 2014-01-07 23:17:31 UTC
Created attachment 91624 [details]
Testcase

Hi Dominique, thanks for  your reply.
I looked at my "language dependent" settings and they are "D-M-Y;D-M", corresponding to my regional settings (Portugal).
My problem ocurred in a csv file with an account extract. Cell A1, with date ex.07-01-2014 was left alined and was not afected by changing number format, thus I suposed was text.
Using the formula =value(A1) in cell B1 doesn't report "Err:502", instead, gives a value 41646. Formating B1 to date "DD-MM-AAAA" gives 07-01-2014 (=A1). When I copy de cell B1 (formated) and paste it to cell C1 with the option "paste only values", results in a blank cell. 
I send you a testcase.
Comment 3 GerardF 2014-01-08 14:03:49 UTC
(In reply to comment #2)
> Formating B1 to date "DD-MM-AAAA" gives 07-01-2014
> (=A1). When I copy de cell B1 (formated) and paste it to cell C1 with the
> option "paste only values", results in a blank cell. 
> I send you a testcase.

May be because it is a date ???
Paste fine with paste special "Date and time".
Comment 4 Fernando 2014-01-08 14:27:43 UTC
Hi Gerard,

Your solution works, but I think that isn't normal to copy a formula which value is visible and then paste it as a value to another cell resulting in a blank cell. At least a non formated value should appear...
Comment 5 Dominique Boutry 2014-01-13 10:41:35 UTC
I deepened my analysis.

I was wrong when saying "on my (english) system, the format of 02-01-2014 is number" : I set "Tools/Options/Calc/View/Display value highlighting" and saw it was effectively a text.

On your testfile.ods, cell B4 (containing =value(A4)) computes as "41641", but if I set another cell to the same formula, it computes to "Err:502".
If I change "02-01-2014" to "02/01/2014", my cell computes to 41641.

So I suppose that the "value()" function interprets its text argument through formats (like the auto-formatting when typing a cell content), and that the text "02-01-2014" in your cell A4 keeps the memory of an anterior interpretation with the portuguese "D-M-Y" date format... but I cannot see any place where this initial characteristic of "portuguese" appears.

Further debugging needed to qualify the bug.

PS: just to be sure : "copy/paste special (value only)" doesn't exist as such ; we have :
- paste special, which opens a pop-up windows with around twenty fields,
- or paste only, which opens a submenu with "Text/Number/Formula",
Do you have the same on LibO 4.1.4.2 Portuguese ?
In your initial Description :
- "Paste only values to cell C1" : not a provided feature,
- Paste only text to cell C1: rightly pastes nothing (= blanks the cell) when the copied cell is numeric (whichever format it shows : number, date, ...).
Comment 6 Fernando 2014-01-17 21:31:42 UTC
My  LibO 4,1,4,2 Portuguese as the same paste options as the english version:
- paste special , which opens a pop-up windows with around twenty fields,
- or paste only, which opens a submenu with "Text/Number/Formula",
When I said "copy/paste special (value only)" I meant “paste only/number”.
Comment 7 ign_christian 2014-07-03 07:37:05 UTC
I agree with Gerard..vote for NOTABUG. 

Date is not a number, so Paste Only "date" currently not apllicable. Perhaps you would request an enhancement about that.
Comment 8 Joel Madero 2014-07-16 20:01:09 UTC
I am marking this as a duplicate of an enhancement request we have. Technically it's true, this is NOTABUG but the enhancement request being resolved would also avoid this confusion.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 81346 ***