Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 105726
Handle numbers with format string behind as real Physical quantities
Last modified: 2014-01-16 15:07:34 UTC
The only ability to change a displayed number depending on its format is the "%" (*100). If we have the abilitynonav/scdocs/ddIssues_EnterModify.html#issue_type to multiply a number in the format definition, so as first impression would it be possible to generate promille (0/00), ie 0,025 with the formatting string ###*1000 "0/00" gets 250 0/00 (‰). So we could eliminate the generic %-Format as obsolete, too. Furthermore it would be possible converting a number seen as cm to inch, or, additionally adding very old (medieval times) formats like elle, pound or special british formats like "pint" :-) A simple case of use could be the different display of length in meters (>1m) and centimeters (<1m)
I am not sure whether I understand the request. Current situation: A Number with a measuring unit is more or less a number with a string behind it, the string is meaningless for calculations, So if you add 2 values with different "units", you get some nonsense ("Current Situation") Current situation should be 1 km 1 km + 1 m + 1 m --------- --------- 2 1001 m If Calc would understand the concept of "Physical quantities" <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_quantity> we would get the "should be " result. With that concept additionally changing unit of "1.23 km" to "m" would lead to result "1230 m". And the result of a division of an electrical voltage [V] by an electrical current [A] would result in an electrical resistance [Ω] And alc would resist to add an electrical resistance [Ω] to an electrical current [A] As an engineer I like that concept, but I wonder whether any Spreadsheet software for normal office use does that, and whether that might be too sophistic for user "Average Joe"
Please attach example.
Hi Edwin, an example you can find in comment 1. For everybody who does not know the concept of Physical quantities I added a link in the same comment. Some theory / background can be found in explications for Chemacro <http://www.dartmouth.edu/~pchem/chemacro.html>, what enables Excel to understand Physical units, and SimpleGroupware <http://www.simple-groupware.de/cms/Spreadsheet/Features>, what also includes understanding of units. May be you know '=CONVERT_ADD', what has some basic understanding of Physical units, but that's far away from intention of this report. No more comments or explications will be required, the only question is whether we want to do that, because of concerns, also in Comment 1. I wonder whether AOO still has something like the old UX / User-Experience, who should think about this.