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Subject: Re: [office-formula] Groups - OpenFormula Specification 2007-06-20 (ODT) (openformula-20070620.od
Hi David, On Thursday, 2007-06-21 11:21:24 -0400, David A. Wheeler wrote: > I said: > > > Functions and operators that receive one or more error values as an input > > > shall produce one of those error values as a result, unless the formula or > > > operator is specifically defined to do otherwise." > > Andreas J Guelzow : > > Are we sure about this. I can't get to a current version of the > > openformula specs in the moment (slow dialup) but this is not true with > > respect to the latest version I have handy. For example COUNTBLANK and > > ISBLANK typically do not propagate errors but the description of those > > functions does not specifically address this issue. > > I think that's ambiguity in the text above - thanks. It's more ambiguity of the function descriptions, in this case COUNTBLANK. > What I _meant_ was, COUNTBLANK(1/0) will respond with an error. > COUNTBLANK(Range) depends on what happens when errors are in the range. Not quite. Usually an error in a range passed to a function propagates through the function. COUNTBLANK is an exception in that it ignores errors. > > In any case I am not sure that requiring "one of those error values" as > > a result is a good idea. An implementation that has a large number of > > possible error values may want to return a less specific error value if > > many different error values come together in a formula. > > Hm. Maybe we should back off and just say "returns an Error"? > > Any suggestions on how to reword this? Isn't this good enough? Functions and operators that receive one or more error values as an input shall produce an error value as a result, unless the formula or operator is specifically defined to do otherwise." > > PS: I guess we should stay away from the questions whether formulas such > > as A1*A2 and A2*A1 should always return the same value. > > Yes please :-). Almost everyone implements "normal" numbers by > calling down to the CPU's numerical processor, and many don't fully > comply with IEEE (etc.) standards. We can't solve everything. I think Andreas was referring something different. Assuming cells A1: =1/0 A2: =0/0 will produce different error values, as is the case in Calc, the formula =A1*A2 will return the error value of A1 while =A2*A1 will return the error value of A2. Eike -- Automatic string conversions considered dangerous. They are the GOTO statements of spreadsheets. --Robert Weir on the OpenDocument formula subcommittee's list.
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