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Subject: Urgent: external named expressions


Hi,

Sorry for gatecrashing, while working on a OOoCalc feature for external
named expressions some doubts about our current draft arose.

Section "5.11 Named Expressions" defines

NamedExpression ::= Identifier |
    NamedExprLocator?
    '$$' (Identifier | SingleQuoted)
NamedExprLocator ::= (Source '#')? (QuotedSheetName '.')?

with test case examples in "5.11.2 External Named Expressions" reading

='./openformula-testsuite.ods'#'$$FOUR

and "5.11.3 Sheet-local Named Expressions"

='./openformula-testsuite.ods'#'Sheet1'.$$FOUR


I think that it would be much better to treat external and sheet-local
named expressions similar to references by enclosing them in a pair of
square brackets. For one, they _are_ references, as they refer to
another sheet or document. Second, it would be easier to parse as the
square brackets clearly delimit the expression, and it may even fit into
already existing reference parsers. This would give:

NamedExpression ::= Identifier | NamedExprMarked | NamedExprReference
NamedExprMarked ::= '$$' (Identifier | SingleQuoted)
NamedExprReference ::= '[' NamedExprLocator NamedExprMarked ']'
NamedExprLocator ::= (Source '#')? (QuotedSheetName '.')?

with examples

=['./openformula-testsuite.ods'#'$$FOUR]
=['./openformula-testsuite.ods'#'Sheet1'.$$FOUR]

What do you think? Better wording for NamedExprMarked, anyone?

  Eike

-- 
Automatic string conversions considered dangerous. They are the GOTO statements
of spreadsheets.  --Robert Weir on the OpenDocument formula subcommittee's list.

PGP signature



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