GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 758997
Ability to delete multiple, non-consecutive rows
Last modified: 2015-12-03 18:10:31 UTC
I often use a spreadsheet to clean-up data that originated from tables where each item is placed on more than one row. An example of such data can be seen here: https://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/memdir/members.aspx Notice how the "Alternate" governor is placed in a separate row below the member country's entry. After importing this data into a spreadsheet and moving the second-row data to the top/primary row, I want to delete all the second rows. I do this by selecting these alternate rows and deleting them. When trying to do this action in Gnumeric I discovered it was not being allowed: http://superuser.com/questions/1008188/how-to-delete-multiple-rows-in-gnumeric I posted to the Gnumeric mailing list and got a response telling me that only deleting consecutive rows is allowed (and suggesting open this request): https://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnumeric-list/2015-December/msg00001.html The functionality is supported by the main competitors to Gnumeric. I would prefer to use Gnumeric more so I'm asking for someone to implement the ability to delete non-consecutive rows to support the workflow I describe above. Thank you for your time and consideration.
This is actually our third-oldest bug from early 2001. Thanks for taking the time to report this. This particular bug has already been reported into our bug tracking system, but please feel free to report any further bugs you find. *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 19827 ***
@Morten Welinder Thanks for the reply. Sorry about the duplicate. Just a quick comment: After reading the bug you mentioned and the bugs referenced therein, I can't help get the feeling that an immense amount of functionality is being grouped into bug 19827. In other words, it seems to me that anything related to non-continuous sections is considered part of that bug, and that seems a little unfair. My issue has nothing (at least in my mind, this may not be so from the perspective of the code base) to do with selecting arbitrary off-set data cells and manipulating them in some way. I am selecting entire rows, so there is no ambiguity in what should happen when they are deleted -- they should be removed and replaced with the existing rows, renumbering the rows as necessary. There would probably be work required to make sure any range definitions are adjusted, but that would be the same as when continuous rows are removed. Admitting fully that I do not know the internals of the Gnumeric code and that I might be wrong, I feel that too broad a brush is being used to color my request the same as coping and pasting arbitrary non-consecutive cells. Dealing with entire rows is not the same as dealing with individual cells. Beyond that, I am only asking for delete functionality, which further limits the scope of my request. That's just my feeling. I say this with all due respect and with absolute appreciation for the work of everyone contributing to Gnumeric and to this bug list. Thanks again for your time and consideration.