For larger spreadsheets, especially with considerable repetition of values, the auto-completion feature in new cells is extremely helpful. However, the algorithm for suggestions could be much smarter than it is. Consider the following very simple example spreadsheet. The first 4 cells have been filled in with values "xa", "xb", "xb", "xc", and the user is part-way through entering the data in cell A5, having typed "x". COL A ROW 1 xa ROW 2 xb ROW 3 xb ROW 4 xc ROW 5 x... Currently, the autocomplete proposes "xa". This is doing an alphabetical search back through the column A. I think that this is the worst possible algorithm to choose. A smarter choice would be "xc", i.e. a reverse-search though history starting at the current position. A possible alternative (maybe even better) would be "xb", i.e. a search for the most common match in the column. The reason why this matters to me is that I have a spreadsheet with about 1000 rows, where the columns are like the following: 1: Long string of text 2: Long string of text 3: Long string of text 4: Long string of test test 5: Long string of text 6: Long string of text 7: Long string of text [repeat for 1000 rows] 1001: Long string of text 1002: Long string of text 1003: L.... in this case, every single autocomplete is wrong, and I have to type out the entry nearly in full, just because of one line which (although it is correct), I entered 3 years ago, and it has been messing up autocomplete every day since then! -- Thanks for your time, and your work on a great program.
Hi Richard, Thanks for writing the idea. I'm not sure how that will work out in various (different) situations, but... (In reply to comment #0) > 4: Long string of test test > 5: Long string of text > 1003: L.... > > in this case, every single autocomplete is wrong, and I have to type out the > entry nearly in full, just because of one line which (although it is > correct), I entered 3 years ago, and it has been messing up autocomplete > every day since then! always Ctrl+Tab cycles through the possible autocomplete options... I think that helps in your case? Best, Cor
Ctrl-Tab does help a bit, but it's much more awkward than a smarter auto-complete. It needs 2 extra keystrokes (which aren't easy to type fast), and then we may have to Ctrl-tab multiple times. Furthermore, it's a non-discoverable and less-intuitive way to work. There is one extra refinement needed - in that we aren't always appending data at the bottom of a column; sometimes we insert in the middle or at the top. (1) Current algorithm is: Scan from top of column for match, accept the first one. (2) Improved algorithm. Scan outward (up + down) from the current cell for a match, accept the nearest one. (3) Optimised algorithm: Scan the entire column and count matches. Accept the most popular match. Given that (3) may be harder to write, and possibly worse at runtime, I think that (2) would suffice - it should be easy to write, and would catch most of the common cases.
Let's set this to NEW.
option 2 would be a nice enhancement!
I found an older report that is requesting a similar change, I will add a comment there to check this out. *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 43742 ***
Per Dennis's comment in bug 142214, let's open this again
*** Bug 117344 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Hi Richard, Did you test the feature, as developed in bug 145198?
Using the test case in the description, this is still relevant in: Version: 7.6.0.0.alpha0+ (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community Build ID: 5cc29848b78b6c5ab01aa7a66b1dd7caff5f9385 CPU threads: 8; OS: Linux 5.15; UI render: default; VCL: gtk3 Locale: en-AU (en_AU.UTF-8); UI: en-US Calc: threaded Writing "x" suggests nothing because there are several matches. Ctrl + Tab still starts with the first option in an alphanumeric sort. "First by alphanumeric sort" was also the case back in OOo 3.3, so inherited.
(In reply to Cor Nouws from comment #8) > Hi Richard, > > Did you test the feature, as developed in bug 145198? Thanks. I've now tested it. That does help slightly, but it isn't really what I was hoping for. To give a specific example, I have a many-many line spreadsheet with a "payment-to" column. In that column: I have one cell near the top containing "Barclaycard" I have hundreds of cells containing "Barclays" I also have a few other options such as "Three" or "Amazon". * When I type "B" the old behaviour was to autocomplete to "Barclaycard". (because it was the first match). * What I now get is "Barclay" which is the bash-like partial completion (which is substantially better, but not perfect). * What I actually wanted was "Barclays" - the most common entry. Thanks!