Bug#504604:

[Tim Richardson <tim@tim-richardson.net>]

I'm still trying to understand the report:


> My suggestion woyld be to have an option where the user can choose that 
> string values when present in an arithmetic formula are
>   a. evaluated as real ( so "1.2"+3 equals 4.2)
>   b. evaluated as integer ( so "1.2"+3 equals 4 )
>   c. evaluated as zero so ( so "1.2"+3 equals 3 )
>   d. evaluated as an error
> Since excel has one of these behaviour
> 

Excel gives #VALUE errors for cell C1 when 
A1 contains "1.2"  (that is if the literal contents is 5 characters "1.2")
B1 contains 1
C1 contains =A1+B1

So does OpenOffice 3 in Debian (Debian packages) (Error 529)
So does OpenOffice 2.4 in Debian (Sid) (Error 529)

But OpenOffice 3 in Windows (the OpenOffice.org build) gives a value of 1 (Option C above)

Personally, I am alarmed that OpenOffice 3 in Windows behaves like this.