Calc 6.0.3.7 - Calc wrongly reformats a formula (most of the semicolons “;” are replaced by tildes “~”)

Trenien · August 11, 2022, 9:36pm

I have a very long IF formula (with about 40 IFs nested within each other to test all the possibilities of a list). To make sure I didn’t make a mistake, I prepared it in an editor and pasted it into the cell.
No joy, there is a problem in the input of the formula: it doesn’t work and if I reopen it, most of the semicolons “;” are replaced by tildes “~”.
After repeating the process with a number of editors, with the same result, I eventually tried to manually correct the formula directly in the cell, with no more luck.
To be precise, I had the same result whether I inputed the formula directly into the cell or through the wizard.

So now, I’m quite at a loss as to what I can do to make it work.
Below is the formula (I did check whether a simple case of the test against the list worked, and there was no problem).

Here is the formula:

IF(N16="EPP";$P$9+$AM$7+$BJ$7;(N16="EPM";$P$9+$AM$7+$BJ$8;(N16="EPS";$P$9+$AM$7+$BJ$9;(N16="EPV";$P$9+$AM$7+0;(N16="IPP";$P$8+$AM$7+$BJ$7;(N16="IPM";$P$8+$AM$7+$BJ$8;(N16="IPS";$P$8+$AM$7+$BJ$9;(N16="IPV";$P$8+$AM$7+0;(N16="CPP";$P$7+$AM$7+$BJ$7;(N16="CPM";$P$7+$AM$7+$BJ$8;(N16="CPS";$P$7+$AM$7+$BJ$9;(N16="CPV";$P$7+0;(N16="EAP";$P$9+$AM$8+$BJ$7;(N16="EAM";$P$9+$AM$8+$BJ$8;(N16="EAS";$P$9+$AM$8+$BJ$9;(N16="EAV";$P$9+$AM$8+0;(N16="IAP";$P$9+$AM$8+$BJ$7;(N16="IAM";$P$8+$AM$8+$BJ$8;(N16="IAS";$P$8+$AM$8+$BJ$9;(N16="IAV";$P$8+$AM$8+0;(N16="CAP";$P$8+$AM$8+$BJ$7;(N16="CAM";$P$7+$AM$8+$BJ$8;(N16="CAS";$P$7+$AM$8+$BJ$9;(N16="CAV";$P$7+$AM$8+0;(N16="EAP";$P$9+$AM$9+$BJ$7;(N16="EAM";$P$9+$AM$9+$BJ$8;(N16="EAS";$P$9+$AM$9+$BJ$9;(N16="EAV";$P$9+$AM$9+0;(N16="IAP";$P$9+$AM$9+$BJ$7;(N16="IAM";$P$8+$AM$9+$BJ$8;(N16="IAS";$P$8+$AM$9+$BJ$9;(N16="IAV";$P$8+$AM$9+0;(N16="CAP";$P$8+$AM$9+$BJ$7;(N16="CAM";$P$7+$AM$9+$BJ$8;(N16="CAS";$P$7+$AM$9+$BJ$9;(N16="CAV";$P$7+$AM$9+0;(N16="EAN";$P$9+$AM$8-1;(N16="EPN";$P$9+$AM$7-1;(N16="V";" ";(N16="X";" "))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

eeigor · August 11, 2022, 9:47pm

Load a file.

JohnSUN · August 12, 2022, 11:19am

Do you mean that each opening parenthesis is preceded by these two letters IF? (Where marked in red)

eeigor · August 11, 2022, 9:44pm

Firstly, you have only one IF formula at the beginning, and then you didn’t insert it at all.
Secondly, your formula is a small dictionary. It is better to replace it with the VLOOKUP formula.

Trenien · August 11, 2022, 9:51pm

Thanks for the first remark, I hadn’t paid attention to the lack of IFs.
As for VLOOKUP, as far as I understand the function, it wouldn’t be appropriate (I’m testing which text string was selected within a pull down list, not looking for one value in a list)

eeigor · August 11, 2022, 10:00pm

Your formula is too complicated and long. There is another: IFS.

You are looking for the text string that was selected. But “selected” is how?

Trenien · August 12, 2022, 8:08am

Well, with the forgotten IF included back, it works. I’m going to look IFS up to see if I could make it simpler.
As for your question, I select the 3 caracter string from a pull down list, and the function is there to decide, from this selection, which cells it’s going to use for a simple sum.

mikekaganski · August 12, 2022, 8:37am

…or SWITCH. But I support your “It is better to replace it with the VLOOKUP formula” both hands.

Trenien · August 12, 2022, 9:10am

SO, indeed, IFS being a nested IF function, it is more appropriate. Since SWITCH is based upon the result of an expression I don’t quite see how I could make it work.
As for VLOOKUP, looking up (indeed) the definition of the function, it seems to check for whatever within a range of cells. If I got that right, this wouldn’t work.

mikekaganski · August 12, 2022, 9:39am

DifferentWays.ods (13.3 KB)

… and the VLOOKUP way, having the separate lookup table, also allows to easily see how the conditions are duplicating - e.g., there’s two “IAS” in the formula, with different “answers” - so the later conditions checking the same value will never match.

Trenien · August 12, 2022, 10:30am

I didn’t think of establishing an ‘out of sight’ table. It does make things clearer.

eeigor · August 12, 2022, 10:59am

Certainly. And the formulas are short and clear.
But the table of values can also be put into formulas as an array of constants, if they do not need to be edited. But when the table is large, it is easier to allocate a separate space on the sheet for it. In addition, you have a table with calculated values, so it must be on the sheet.

mikekaganski · August 12, 2022, 11:04am

Additional benefit of a separate table, compared to something like IF(S)/SWITCH, is that the values are calculated once. In case of IF(S), every cell with the formula will have to calculate the whole set of return values anew. It could be significant for large tables and/or complex calculations.

Trenien · August 12, 2022, 12:55pm

I’ll keep it in mind, thanks.