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Re: Displaying a ragged array

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On 9/19/2018 1:49 PM, Martin Gregorie wrote:
> [...]
> Last time I had to change these
> files I did the job with OfficeLibre Calc, which was much easier because
> the data presentation was better. The main bugbear of using spreadsheets
> comes from the way that can mangle date and numeric columns. This wasn't
> a problem for me (either because Calc is fairly benign in this respect or
> because the data in these file is mostly alphanumeric) but friends say
> that data mangling is a real problem if you try using Excel to edit CSV
> files. Consequently I really want a similar window layout to a typical
> spreadsheet.

     It might be better to teach the users how to use a spreadsheet in a
mode that isn't "helpful."  With LibreOffice (and other StarOffice
offspring), the open-file dialog allows you to designate one or more
columns as "Text" rather than as "Standard" (or various "Date" forms),
which prevents the spreadsheet from trying to guess at the contents and
format "accordingly."  I'm neither Excel-ent nor a Lotus-eater, but I'd
be surprised if they didn't have equivalent capabilities.

     If you're in an environment where the users can't be taught (maybe
they're downloaders unknown to you, maybe they're just dense), then
you'll be in the unpleasant position of offering them Yet Another Editor
Interface To Learn Unaided, and they'll be in the unpleasant position of
Struggling With An Editor Less Powerful Than Their Favorite.  The
unpleasant positions may be unavoidable, but if there's even a slight
chance of avoiding them I'd advise you to try.

     One further possibility (only you can say whether it's "possible" or
"out of the question"): Store the data as actual spreadsheet files --
as .ods rather than as .csv, for LibreOffice.  That way you can set up
the proper formatting (all "Text," most likely) to begin with, and the
spreadsheet will remember it and preserve it each time it's opened.
Java tools for reading and writing ODF exist (I know of jOpenDocument
and ODFDOM, although the freely-available documentation isn't great),
or you can even use UNO to control a running LibreOffice instance from
Java.  I found the official ODF spec rather daunting and gave up trying
to read it; nonetheless I was able to reverse-engineer enough of the
format to load simple .ods spreadsheets.  Unsupported code available on
request.

-- 
esosman@comcast-dot-net.invalid
Eight hundred fifty-four days to go.

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Thread

Displaying a ragged array Martin Gregorie <martin@mydomain.invalid> - 2018-09-16 22:17 +0000
  Re: Displaying a ragged array Daniele Futtorovic <da.futt.news@laposte-dot-net.invalid> - 2018-09-17 16:00 +0200
    Re: Displaying a ragged array Martin Gregorie <martin@mydomain.invalid> - 2018-09-17 19:32 +0000
      Re: Displaying a ragged array Daniele Futtorovic <da.futt.news@laposte-dot-net.invalid> - 2018-09-17 23:29 +0200
        Re: Displaying a ragged array Martin Gregorie <martin@mydomain.invalid> - 2018-09-17 23:43 +0000
          Re: Displaying a ragged array Daniele Futtorovic <da.futt.news@laposte-dot-net.invalid> - 2018-09-19 18:12 +0200
            Re: Displaying a ragged array Martin Gregorie <martin@mydomain.invalid> - 2018-09-19 17:49 +0000
              Re: Displaying a ragged array Eric Sosman <esosman@comcast-dot-net.invalid> - 2018-09-19 14:25 -0400
                Re: Displaying a ragged array Martin Gregorie <martin@mydomain.invalid> - 2018-09-19 19:29 +0000
                Re: Displaying a ragged array Daniele Futtorovic <da.futt.news@laposte-dot-net.invalid> - 2018-09-20 15:30 +0200
                Re: Displaying a ragged array Martin Gregorie <martin@mydomain.invalid> - 2018-09-20 15:06 +0000
              Re: Displaying a ragged array Eric Douglas <e.d.programmer@gmail.com> - 2018-09-24 08:11 -0700
                Re: Displaying a ragged array Martin Gregorie <martin@mydomain.invalid> - 2018-09-24 17:52 +0000
                Re: Displaying a ragged array Eric Douglas <e.d.programmer@gmail.com> - 2018-09-24 12:01 -0700
                Re: Displaying a ragged array Martin Gregorie <martin@mydomain.invalid> - 2018-10-23 21:00 +0000
  Re: Displaying a ragged array Eric Sosman <esosman@comcast-dot-net.invalid> - 2018-09-17 10:17 -0400
    Re: Displaying a ragged array Martin Gregorie <martin@mydomain.invalid> - 2018-09-17 19:46 +0000
      Re: Displaying a ragged array Martin Gregorie <martin@mydomain.invalid> - 2018-09-17 23:53 +0000

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