GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 376090
"1-10" is interpreted as a date by default
Last modified: 2006-11-17 16:28:59 UTC
Please describe the problem: I have a CSV (tab-separated, though, not comma) data file I'm trying to read in. It contains a column with either "001" "110" or "1-10". When reading the file in, however, the first two are done acceptably ("001"->"1" is acceptable and quite understandable, although it'd be nice if it preserved leading zeroes). However, the "1-10" fields are all converted to dates, causing a data loss (since it then becomes 38727 when viewed as a number or string. Steps to reproduce: 1. Create CSV file with "1-10" in it 2. Import it into gnumeric 3. Watch the conversion Actual results: Converts "1-10" into 38727 Expected results: Keep "1-10" as a string. Does this happen every time? Yes. Other information: Just an overzealous conversion. It might be nicer to check the rest of the row/column data before jumping to conclusions, not just the individual cell.
Fixed in the development version. The fix will be available in the next major release. Thank you for your bug report. This affected simple entry into blank cells too.
Hmm... For the record, reading "1-10" as January 10 is actually Excel compatible. For me that displays as "10-Jan" in the cell and "1/10/2006" in the entry.