The Paste operation does not always work as expected. A workaround is to use Paste Special. Not sure if this should be a bug or feature request, so please modify status as appropriate. Steps to replicate: 1. Copy the following into your clipboard: 2014-04-01 SubAssembly1 =B$2+B$3 2014-02-01 Nuts 10 2014-03-01 Bolts 5 2014-04-01 SubAssembly2 =B2+B3 2014-01-01 Grease 50 2014-05-01 Assembly1 =B4+B5 2014-05-01 Assembly2 =B$1+B$5 2. Open LO Calc, and press Ctrl+v to paste into an empty spreadsheet. 3. Notice that each row appears in own cell all in one single column.
The references in the example are irrelevant to this bug, but in case it confused anyone, the references for that test spreadsheet should reference column C, not column B (I had edited it by hand to simply the bug report, and made a mistake). Here's how it should have looked: 2014-04-01 SubAssembly1 =C$2+C$3 2014-02-01 Nuts 10 2014-03-01 Bolts 5 2014-04-01 SubAssembly2 =C2+C3 2014-01-01 Grease 50 2014-05-01 Assembly1 =C4+C5 2014-05-01 Assembly2 =C$1+C$5 BTW, the example uses 2 different types of references because this is a test spreadsheet being used to verify a bug dealing with references being lost during sort (another bug - 45146).
Where do you copy the text from? If that is a web page, what is the source HTML text?
You can just copy it from this thread. BTW, I figured Paste Special would be a workaround, but for some reason it doesn't work well in this case.
Paste special works well for me in this case. You have to choose Paste as unformatted text, then the csv text import dialog appears. There set the separator to space and check the checkbox "Merge delimeters". Tested with LO 4.1.6, 4.2.7.0.0+, 4.3.2.0.0+ and master under Ubuntu 14.04 x86-64 For me there is no bug there. Please could you confirm that it works for you? Set status to NEEDINFO. Please set it back to UNCONFIRMED once you have provided requested informations. Thank you for your understanding. Best regards. JBF
@JBF: Thanks for the confirmation on Ubuntu. Following your exact instructions, Paste Special works as needed for a workaround. Did regular Paste work? We must ask, should LO Calc be smart enough to figure this out itself using the Paste function? And if so, should it be a bug or feature request? I can see an argument both ways. As for calling it a bug, that makes sense since LO Calc is obviously not doing what a user would expect. Pasting into LO Calc (especially using the keyboard shortcut) is a common user objective. As for calling it a feature request, that makes sense since there is a reasonable workaround using a function specifically designed to handle this case and similar cases. Either designation seems appropriate, so I'll defer to someone with more experience to make the decision. I've marked the status as UNCONFIRMED per your request. Thanks again.
For me it's not a workaround, it's the normal behavior. Paste special is designed to manage the cases where data have to be interpreted before being copied. It is clearly the case here. Indeed I think you can't avoid passing through the csv import dialog to choose the field separator. This dialog remembers your previous choice, and if you do several imports from various sources, you may have to change the field separator. It was the case for me when I did my tests for comment #4 because the csv files I use have mainly the space as separator field. That said it is very easy to do this paste special with the toolbar and with the keyboard: - with the toolbar: click on the small triangle on the right of the paste button and you will have a dropdown list with the same items as in Paste special menu. - with the keyboard: instead on pasting with Ctrl+V, use Maj+Ctrl+V which is the shortcut for Paste special; the entry Unformatted text is the first and selected by default, so you have only to press the Enter key to open the csv dialog import. Additionally, if you have to do the same copy-paste operation several times with different data but same field separator, the csv dialog remember your choices and you can validate immediately. So closing as WorksForMe. Best regards. JBF
You have been asked where are you copying your data from and what underlying format they have. If you are ignoring the questions, there is nothing to be done with your bug.
@Urmas: Not sure why you choosing to be rude. Please be nice to others. I believe in comment #3 of this thread I answered your question. To demonstrate this issue, simply copy the textual example spreadsheet from this thread to your clipboard. There is no underlying formatting, just plain ASCII text. @JBP: I agree that "workaround" is not the best word. When the user pastes anything, they expect it to be pasted in a way that makes sense to them. Currently, there are two methods: Paste, which works only when the item is formatted perfectly, and Paste Special when it is not. What if LO Calc could identify when the user is trying to paste something that regular Paste can not handle elegantly, and automatically opened the Paste Special dialog box? What do you think? The mental model of the user is to Paste what is in the clipboard. It is unlikely they want to consider two different operations to perform the same task. That said, the current implementation of Paste Special works quite well in my testing, and is very flexible. I would categorize this as a Feature Request or Usability Bug; the functionality works as designed, but the design is questionable.