Question re the SML simple type ST_sqref and list-item separator

[Francis Cave]

Hi Charlie

Don't be too quick to blame LibreOffice either, at least not the version I'm using (version 5.3.7.2). I just opened my test document in LibreOffice Calc and saved it, and multiple ranges in @sqref are space-separated. Just to be sure that this wasn't as a result of the document having been created in Excel, I created a new multi-range set of cells in LibreOffice with conditional formatting applied, and the ranges are space-separated in the saved spreadsheet.

Still, I've no doubt that your general point is correct: there are implementations of SpreadsheetML out there that aren't storing multiple ranges correctly.

Out of interest, if you open such a document in Excel, does it open correctly? If I change the space to a comma in <conditionalFormatting>, both Excel and LibreOffice open the resulting file, but both silently throw away the conditional formatting.

Kind regards,

Francis



-----Original Message-----
From: Charlie Clark [mailto:charlie.clark at clark-consulting.eu] 
Sent: 23 February 2018 17:10
To: 'SC 34 WG4' <e-SC34-WG4 at ecma-international.org>
Subject: Re: Question re the SML simple type ST_sqref and list-item separator

Am .02.2018, 16:08 Uhr, schrieb Francis Cave <francis at franciscave.com>:

> Hi Charlie
>
> I've just created a simple test document in Excel 2016 on Windows 10. 
> In the case of both <conditionalFormatting> and <protectedRange>, this 
> version of Excel uses spaces to separate multiple ranges specified in 
> @sqref, in accordance with the standard. I haven't checked the other 
> use of @sqref (<ignoredError>), but I anticipate that the same will apply.
>
> However, I note that in the Excel user interface multiple ranges are 
> displayed with commas between the ranges, where in the SML document 
> there are spaces. Might this be simply a difference between the file 
> format and the user interface?

Hi Francis,

thanks very much for checking this. I think I may have been a little hasty attributing blame to Excel as it looks like the file might have been created by another application such as LibreOffice: the creator app is missing in one file's metadata, but I've just received another with the same approach that was created by LibreOffice. It it is, therefore, be one of the many bugs that LibreOffice has when it comes to styles.

So thanks again and sorry for the noise!

Charlie
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