[Libreoffice-bugs] [Bug 127170] New: The German documentation for time formats does not explain formatting differences of durations and wall clock time.

[bugzilla-daemon at bugs.documentfoundation.org]

https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=127170

            Bug ID: 127170
           Summary: The German documentation for time formats does not
                    explain formatting differences of durations and wall
                    clock time.
           Product: LibreOffice
           Version: 6.0.4.2 release
          Hardware: All
                OS: All
            Status: UNCONFIRMED
          Severity: normal
          Priority: medium
         Component: Calc
          Assignee: libreoffice-bugs at lists.freedesktop.org
          Reporter: albrecht.mueller at astrail.de

Description:
I am affected by bug 125099 when I used Libre Office Calc version 6.2.5 on
Ubuntu. According to comment #12 this problem should be fixed already. Comment
#8 in Bug 125099 by Eike Rathke states that the correct way to avoid the
problem is to use a duration format instead of a wall clock time format. I was
not aware that there is such kind of distinction as I did not find a
corresponding hint in the German documentation of the time format. The spread
sheets affected by this bug still display wrong numbers using Version 6.2.6.2
Ubuntu Build Id 1:6.2.6-0ubuntu0.19.04.1, they show correct numbers with Calc
version 6.0.4.2 (x64) Build-ID: 9b0d9b32d5dcda91d2f1a96dc04c645c450872bf
(Windows).

Steps to Reproduce:
See help information:
https://help.libreoffice.org/6.3/de/text/shared/01/05020301.html?DbPAR=SHARED#hd_id3155870

Actual Results:
The explanation states that the format “HH” stands for hours between 0 … 23,
and “[HH]” allows hours greater than 23 hours. I did not notice any hint that
mentions durations, wall clock time or implications on the rounding behaviour.


Expected Results:
Expected result: The format description should mention that there are different
rounding strategies: A duration of 0:59 should display as 1 hour if rounded to
a precision of hours. Interpreted as wall clock time this should round to 0
hours. There should also a reference to a more thorough specification that
describes how Calc handles the problem of having no exact representation of
most time values which is inherent in its time representation.

The documentation should also contain a clear specification of the meaning of a
format string which does not change between versions as changing this
specification breaks existing ods-Files. I observed some quite strange features
of the time formatting mechanism, e.g. the time 23:57:00 gets formatted to
“1437” using the format string “[MM]” but to “Minutes: [57] Month: 12” (
Version 6.0.4.2 (x64) on Windows) or to “Minutes: [12] Month: 12” (Version
6.2.6.2 Ubuntu) by the format string “"Minutes: "[MM]" Month: "M”. What is the
correct interpretation of the format string parts “[MM]” or “MM”? How does it
depend on the context?

The lack of a clear specification causes serious problems when upgrading to a
new version. An existing speadsheet may show month values where you used to see
minutes. The result the you see in an old spreadsheet may be a complete day off
despite the fact that the actual calculation differs by a tiny fraction of a
millisecond only.


Reproducible: Always


User Profile Reset: No



Additional Info:

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