OpenOffice.org Calc does not have enough columns

[Diederik Zwager]

Binary package hint: openoffice.org

I opened the attached Excel 1997-2003 spreadsheet that has a lot of columns (one for every day of the year, plus a few more). However OpenOffice.org Calc will only display the columns up until "IV". That means that the last 3 months of the year are not visible.

Please fix this.

[tho (bettlertho)]

Please increase the column limit to match at least the limit of MS Excel (which is currently at 16k).
btw: KSpread supports 32k.

The objective must be the compatibility between all those office solutions.

Another important question:
Why is the limit statically implemented [hardcoded] on application level? Wouldn't it be smarter to
define it per spreadsheet [or even omit an explicit limit] say have a dynamic solution?

This is the logical sequence of Bug 31612, [which had been in pipe already 4 years]

[Www-openoffice-org (www-openoffice-org)]

this issue is dup for issue 19440
please transfer your votes

[Oc-n (oc-n)]

Reassign to owner requirements

[tho (bettlertho)]

Nope, read correctly, it isn't dup.

The other issue is about number of rows and sheets but not about nr of cols!

[Robin-laing (robin-laing)]

This issue is related to the increase in the number of rows to compete/surpass
other applications.

http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=30215

[tho (bettlertho)]

So what was then about bug 31612?

Honestly, I don't get your logic...

[Crake (crake)]

*** Issue 86049 has been confirmed by votes. ***

[Kayleflap (kayleflap)]

From nsaa on Issue 30215 (further thoughts on row limits)

To manually hack an increase to the number of columns:
http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Calc/hacks/number_of_rows

Change MAXCOLCOUNT_DEFINE in sc/inc/address.hxx to a multiple of 16.

[tho (bettlertho)]

Of course this workaround exists. But I'd like to send these the large docs to anyone using OO.o. So
this isn't the right way.

[Robin-laing (robin-laing)]

Now that the row limit <http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=30215>
is being targeted for 3.0, maybe this should be as well to ensure compatibility
for Microsoft's planned support for ODF in 2007.

[Marco da Silva (igama)]

What version of OpenOffice are you using?

That is not related to Ubuntu, but OpenOffice it Self.

If your using OpenOffice 2.3 , Try OpenOffice 2.4 , you can get the DEBS at openoffice.org.

If using 2.4 you can try the OpenOffice 3.0 Beta.

[Dimitrios Symeonidis (azimout)]

The issue exists in OpenOffice 2.4.

It is one of the features in OpenOffice 3:
http://marketing.openoffice.org/3.0/featurelistbeta.html#1024_Columns_Per_Calc_Sheet_.28Instead_of_256.29

If you want, you can try using OpenOffice 3 release candidates from here:
http://download.openoffice.org/680/?intcmp=1461
however, it is not recommended for production systems...

Otherwise, you should just wait (version 3 should be out in autumn I think)

[Chris Cheney (ccheney)]

The xls file you attached only shows to column 'IV' even in Microsoft Excel 2007. Are you sure your file isn't incomplete?

Thanks,

Chris Cheney

[Oc-n (oc-n)]

reassigning features and enhancements to user <email address hidden> which
will be the default owner for those tasks (was introduced some time ago)

[Chris Cheney (ccheney)]

We are closing this bug report because it lacks the information we need to investigate the problem, as described in the previous comments. Please reopen it if you can give us the missing information, and don't hesitate to submit bug reports in the future. To reopen the bug report you can click on the current status, under the Status column, and change the Status back to "New". Thanks again!

[Robert Pawn (bobtpawn)]

I am currently trying to use OO Calc for data analysis, but my data has a little more than 3000 columns. I am expecting interesting effects to happen in the last 700 or so columns, but Calc can't load them.

[Dimitrios Symeonidis (azimout)]

confirmed, wishlist
microsoft excel 2007 supports "1,048,576 rows by 16,384 columns" (quoted from http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/HA100738731033.aspx)

[Chris Cheney (ccheney)]

Can you please attach an example document exhibiting this problem?

[Davidsarmstrong (davidsarmstrong)]

I agree that this is an issue that may not happen often but when it does it is a
show-stopper. Even more important is the row count limitation.

[Björn Michaelsen (bjoern-michaelsen)]

[This is an automated message.]
There are no new official OpenOffice.org releases in Ubuntu packaging anymore => Won't Fix

If the problem persists, please mark this bug as "also affects project Libreoffice" or "also affects distribution Libreoffice (Ubuntu)" if that has not happened already.

Please leave references to upstream OpenOffice.org bugs in place to allow cross pollination.

[Xavier Poinsard (xpoinsard)]

The bug in libreoffice bugzilla : https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=50916

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Diederik Zwager, thank you for reporting this and helping make Ubuntu better. The reason why the file you attached only showed up to column IV (256 columns) in OpenOffice.org, and now in LibreOffice, is because this is the specification limit of the Excel 2003 file format. For more on this, please see http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/excel-specifications-and-limits-HP005199291.aspx .

As well, if one attempts to open the same file in Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 Excel Version 14.0.6023.1000 (32-bit) the same phenomenon occurs. LibreOffice keeps expectation compatibility with this.

Thank you for reporting this and helping make Ubuntu better. Please feel free to report any future bugs you may find.

lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 12.10
Release: 12.10

apt-cache policy libreoffice-calc
libreoffice-calc:
  Installed: 1:3.6.2~rc2-0ubuntu3
  Candidate: 1:3.6.2~rc2-0ubuntu3
  Version table:
 *** 1:3.6.2~rc2-0ubuntu3 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal/main i386 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

[efa (efa)]

see Libreoffice 1024 column limit:
https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=50916

[Mkrcds (mkrcds)]

*** Issue 126506 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***

[Agnostos88 (agnostos88)]

For anyone interested, LibreOffice 7.4 was released today with support for 16384 columns in Calc: https://llunak.blogspot.com/2022/03/enabling-calc-support-for-16384-columns.html

Technical details blogpost from 2017: https://niocs.github.io/LOBook/misc/16kcols.html

[Petko-p (petko-p)]

Other alternatives are gnumneric with 16,384 columns (http://www.gnumeric.org/) as LO.
And Caligra Sheets with 32,767 Columns (https://calligra.org/) as max value.
Both have this feature for years.

So other Open Source Spreadsheet apps are much more powerfull in this respect, or have the feature for longer time, but they do not feel the need to advertise their product in other projects bug tracker like spammers do.
I hope you understand that bug trackers are a development tool and not a evaluation platform for the best tooling. Use other channels if you feel the need for your dvertisements.

Thank you!

All the best
Peter

[Mseidel-k (mseidel-k)]

He may not be aware that LO license does not allow us to take code from them...

But maybe reading the technical blogpost can give us some hints?

[Petko-p (petko-p)]

Ohh no. I did not consider that. It seems I am to frustrated on some statements, to even consider this. :( This is of course wrong and not what I want.

I am sorry. Please take my apologies.

yes we should look into this too.

[Petko-p (petko-p)]

Okay, in order to add morte columens we need to change the way lots of fields are processed. Currently SC moves through all fields in order for update. This is very slow, anmd becomes slower if there are more fields.

LO did move to a vector array, enhanced the formula of processing and they are now confident to increase the field amount.

I am not sure this is the right track. It depends on the way the table is build and I am not sure the container type is the best decision that has been taken.
Especially if you think that a table might not be uniform. I have an Idea how to solve this issue, but I need to experiment a bit. Also more research is needed.