[OASIS Issue Tracker] Commented: (OFFICE-2750) Needs-Discussion:5.8: Error Literals in References

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    [ http://tools.oasis-open.org/issues/browse/OFFICE-2750?page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:comment-tabpanel&focusedCommentId=19473#action_19473 ] 

Andreas Guelzow  commented on OFFICE-2750:
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Whatever formula was created by the user through interaction with the program should be written to the file. A program should be free to modify the formula as a result of a user action however considered appropriate by the users and/or creators of that program. We should only be concerned about that the resulting (valid) formula is written to the file without loss of information. If the user action itself leads to a loss of information that is beyond the scope of a file format.

So we should _not_discuss whether deleting column B will change the formula =[.A1]+[.B1] to =[.A1] + #REF!  or =[.A1] + #REF!1  or = #REF! or anything else, but just that the resulting formula when written to the ODF file is valid. (Note that an ODF implementation does not even need to have the error value #REF! in the first place.) 

I have no idea how =[.A1] + #REF!1 could be correctly written as an OpenFormula formula. But those choices are an implementation issue.(Looking in the OpenOffice file I see  table:formula="of:=[.A1]+[.#REF!1]" but that does not seem to be a valid formula.)

> Needs-Discussion: 5.8: Error Literals in References
> ---------------------------------------------------
>
>                 Key: OFFICE-2750
>                 URL: http://tools.oasis-open.org/issues/browse/OFFICE-2750
>             Project: OASIS Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) TC
>          Issue Type: Bug
>          Components: OpenFormula
>    Affects Versions: ODF 1.2 CD 05
>            Reporter: Eric Patterson
>
> When a part of a refence has been invalidated (ex. deleting a column) it is often useful to show an error literal as the part of the reference that was invalidated.  The reference syntax seems to indicate that a reference can be used in place of the sheetname, but the exact syntax doesn't seem clear.
> For example, if you have a formula that adds cell A1 and B2 and then delete column B, what will the resulting formula be?
> In Excel:
> Original formula =A1 + B1
> Resulting formula =A1 + #REF!
> In Calc:
> Original formula =A1 + B1
> Resulting formula =A1 + #REF!1

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