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Subject: Function ANCHOR() instead of "Number:Reserve-Space element"
Dear ODF TC Members, while reading the "Number:Reserve-Space element"-proposal (see http://wiki.oasis-open.org/office/number%3Areserve-space_element) I came up with a better idea. But first I need to point to some limitations of the current strategy. Often when I prepare tabular data, I would like to have the numbers aligned. This is easy if the numbers have the same format and are of the same size. But this is not always the case. More specifically, I have sometimes textual information containing numbers and I wish to have these aligned along the numbers. Consider a table consisting of statistical summaries: Mean (SD) X1: 12.3 ( 1.68) X2: 0.4 ( 0.77) X3: 256.0 (77.10) Median (IQR) M1: 10.5 (5 - 12) M2: 3.6 (1 - 6) ... I would like to have them aligned along some defined points. Reserving space is however an ugly and non-flexible workaround. It is a low-level hack, but not really a solution. Here is an idea how I would do it. 1.) NUMBER FORMATTING ===================== When we have only numbers, the user shall be able to include in the number format a specific tab-marker which specifies where to anchor the number. Lets say this anchor is written as: <a: _ID_ > </a: _ID_ > #,##0<a:1>.</a:1>00 If we aligned the numbers left, we would get e.g.: 1,425.25 -1,223.67 66.59 We could have centered these numbers within a column, and they would still be properly aligned. Another example: 12.1 0.27 125.0 2.) FUNCTION ANCHOR() ==================== When creating more complex strings, e.g.: =CONCATENATE(A1; ANCHOR(1); B1; ANCHOR(2); C1) The strings would be aligned first by the first anchor, and then if possible by the second anchor (possible only if space characters were present between the 2 anchors). ANCHOR() would insert an invisible tag that permits aligning 2 strings on the position of that tag. format: ANCHOR (int number) _number_ specifies the anchor level; first anchor is 1 and has precedence over subsequent anchors; ADVANTAGES =========== Advantages of this new method: 1.) It is possible to align more than one part of the number/string 2.) It is possible to align within a cell: left/center/right 3.) It is overall much more powerful and flexible Sincerely, Leonard P.S. Please implement a shorthand for CONCATENATE() within ODF, e.g. CONCAT()
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