On Thu, May 1, 2014 at 5:37 PM, Buck Calabro <kc2hiz@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Formula support in POI is a work in progress.
http://poi.apache.org/spreadsheet/formula.html
Hmm. This is a little surprising to me, given the age and maturity of
POI, and the legions of Java programmers out there, not to mention the
abilities of the Apache programmers themselves.
But, POI is a little bit of an odd beast in that it is both a reader
and a writer. A lot of projects aren't that ambitious. So what I'm
wondering is: When they say it's a work in progress, what aspect of
"formula support" is in progress?
It looks to me (just based on reading that page) that they actually
have fairly good support already. You can write a formula, you can
read the text of a formula. This is enough for most people's needs.
What seems unsupported or not fully supported is "manipulation" of
formulas. But I don't even know what that means.
Now, they don't say anything at all about reading the values that are
stored in the cells that contain formulas. Before today, reading this
thread on RPG400-L, I would have thought they didn't mention it
because (1) it's trivial, and (2) you could make the argument that
reading a *value* has nothing to do with *formula* support.
But now I'm not so sure. Your comments, and especially Jerry's, are
making me start to have doubts.
If POI really does have this gaping hole (I'm still having trouble
believing it), then that is all the more reason to try some other (ANY
other) package. Because truly, the value of any cell is right there
for the taking, regardless of whether it contains a formula. It would
be shocking for POI not to take it.
John
midrange.com
