Hello everyone,
It's about the Excel feature “dynamic array”, bug 127808.
In the section “Non-Scalar Evaluation” (3.3, part 4) [1], ODF has rules
on what to do if the actual result array has a different width or height
than the target range. An adjustment of the target range to the actual
result array does not occur in these rules. In order to be able to
describe the “dynamic array” feature of Excel in ODF, these rules would
have to be extended.
In the file format, the target range is defined by the attributes
table:number-matrix-columns-spanned (19.683, part 3) and
table:number-matrix-rows-spanned (19.684, part 3) of the element
<table:table-cell> (9.1.4, part 3).
My idea is to extend the attributes of the <table:table-cell> element
with a Boolean attribute table:matrix-is-dynamic. Such an attribute
would not only serve as a hint for applications to allow dynamic
adaption while the user is working with the opened document. It would
also capture situations where the size of a database range linked to an
external source changes and the spreadsheet contains expressions that
use that database range.
For the dynamic size of a database range, the element
<table:database-range> (9.4.15, part ) has the attribute
table:on-update-keep-size (19.686, part 3).
What do you think?
I know, that it is also necessary to extend the formula syntax so that a
dynamic range can be used as a parameter. This is bug 161399.
BTW: Does anyone already have concrete plans to implement something
similar to the Excel feature “dynamic array” in LibreOffice?
[1] https://docs.oasis-open.org/office/OpenDocument/v1.3/os/
Kind regards,
Regina
