[Libreoffice-bugs] [Bug 59309] One cell containing text in a string of addends causes calc to return #VALUE!.

[bugzilla-daemon at bugs.documentfoundation.org]

https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=59309

b. <newbie-02 at gmx.de> changed:

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                 CC|                            |newbie-02 at gmx.de

--- Comment #4 from b. <newbie-02 at gmx.de> ---
Created attachment 162631
  --> https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/attachment.cgi?id=162631&action=edit
sample for OP, samples for questionable results

reopening as imho it's a valid question / valid conflict ... 

seeing it different to the OP, '#VALUE!' can be handeled by a user, silent semi
intelligent 'help' is dangerous, 

for or against all highlighted results can be argued from different and
conclusive points of view: 
- you shouldn't calculate text, 
- you should convert strings to numbers if applicable, 
- '+' and 'SUM' should have same result, 
- omission of arguments should be visible to the user
- conversion of arguments should be visible to the user
- school math standard, 
- TDF math standard, 
- excel compatibility, 
and plenty more ...

the essential point is: 

while we are arguing about flavours of special points calc produces irritated
users and wrong results ‚in the field’, 
(these wrong results may be right from the one or other point of view, that
doesn’t help a user who had conclusive other expectations) 

the question of all questions is: 'where do we want to go'?

and there could hardly be any other answer than: 
'informed users which can handle the results’, 

(it’s a little as with democracy, informed people could handle that, if after
elections 'politics' follows 'superior aspects' or if the flood of information
overwhelms the individual because of the size of the administrative unit or
information is manipulated, democracy is a worthless fraud)

and ex$el compatibility: yes, it’s an important point, but should not spread
errors or hinder progress, otherwise calc is blocked from ever becoming better
than ex$el

thus any formula which gets arguments or parameters which do not fully fit the
type needed should mark it’s results accordingly, 
and these warnings should spread downstreams (it’s a spreadsheet isn’t it?)
text proposal: ‚unusual or conflicting types detected within the arguments used
for this cell, conversion and / or omission took place, pls. double check your
results‘, 

imho ex$el started going that path, i don't know if already with warnings for
arguments in formulas, but they started marking cells with 'deviating
formatting' years ago, which is an attempt to produce 'informed users' and thus
the right direction.

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