Issue 122023 - Fixed width text import results in numbers as labels
Summary: Fixed width text import results in numbers as labels
Status: REOPENED
Alias: None
Product: Calc
Classification: Application
Component: open-import (show other issues)
Version: 3.4.1
Hardware: All All
: P3 Major (vote)
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: AOO issues mailing list
QA Contact:
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2013-04-09 19:03 UTC by crxssi
Modified: 2013-04-11 05:10 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

See Also:
Issue Type: ENHANCEMENT
Latest Confirmation in: 4.0.0
Developer Difficulty: ---

Attachments
Test import file containing fixed column width data (54 bytes, text/csv)
2013-04-09 19:03 UTC, crxssi 		no flags Details
Screenshot of import process (49.54 KB, image/png)
2013-04-09 19:04 UTC, crxssi 		no flags Details
Screenshot showing resulting spreadsheet after import (27.28 KB, image/png)
2013-04-09 19:04 UTC, crxssi 		no flags Details
Resulting ODS file, post-import, showing the incorrect conversion (6.67 KB, application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.spreadsheet)
2013-04-09 19:05 UTC, crxssi 		no flags Details
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Description crxssi 2013-04-09 19:03:11 UTC 
Created attachment 80512 [details]
Test import file containing fixed column width data

When attempting to import fixed width text files (or from pasting into a spreadsheet), the resulting import treats numbers as labels/text not numbers.  Attached to this bug report is a sample test.csv file that contains two columns as following:

john    265345.23
sally     5623.51
sue         10.32

Open the file in Calc 3.4.1 and in the import dialog choose "Fixed width" and place the column separator between the two columns and click on "OK" (screen shot attached).  The result will be two columns imported into a spreadsheet.  Both columns are text.  Each number will have an apostrophe (') and a few spaces, then the text representation of the number (screen shot attached and an ODS file attached).

This is a SEVERE regression bug.  The problem does not occur in OpenOffice 3.2.1 nor in LibreOffice 4.0.0.  (And it doesn't matter if there are commas in the numbers or spaces after the numbers, it still works correctly in older OpenOffices and in Libreoffice 4).

From what I can tell, there is no possible workaround and it leaves us unable to upgrade to 3.4.1 because we would no longer be able to import and parse any of our fixed-width reports (which we do a lot).
Comment 1 crxssi 2013-04-09 19:04:03 UTC 
Created attachment 80513 [details]
Screenshot of import process
Comment 2 crxssi 2013-04-09 19:04:35 UTC 
Created attachment 80514 [details]
Screenshot showing resulting spreadsheet after import
Comment 3 crxssi 2013-04-09 19:05:21 UTC 
Created attachment 80515 [details]
Resulting ODS file, post-import, showing the incorrect conversion
Comment 4 Edwin Sharp 2013-04-10 16:53:10 UTC 
Please check "Other options - Detect special numbers" in Text Import dialog.
numbers imported as numbers in Rev. 1458754.
Comment 5 crxssi 2013-04-11 02:12:19 UTC 
OK, thanks for the info!  I was freaking out thinking this was crazy! Not quite sure why the behavior had to change (worked fine before without such an option, at least for us).  Probably would be nice if that option were checked by default/initially so it would retain the same behavior as previous versions.


Anyway, hopefully this will help any others thinking there is a bug (at least, I will continue to think this to spare myself from thinking I wasted a bunch of time and energy ;) )
Comment 6 Edwin Sharp 2013-04-11 05:10:09 UTC 
Reopening as enhancement so "Other options - Detect special numbers" in Text Import dialog will be checked by default.