Bug #37261 for Spreadsheet-ParseExcel: negative time bug

• Active bugs
• Resolved bugs
• Rejected bugs

This queue is for tickets about the Spreadsheet-ParseExcel CPAN distribution.

Maintainer(s)' notes

If you are reporting a bug in Spreadsheet::ParseExcel here are some pointers

1) State the issues as clearly and as concisely as possible. A simple program or Excel test file (see below) will often explain the issue better than a lot of text.

2) Provide information on your system, version of perl and module versions. The following program will generate everything that is required. Put this information in your bug report.

    #!/usr/bin/perl -w

    print "\n    Perl version   : $]";
    print "\n    OS name        : $^O";
    print "\n    Module versions: (not all are required)\n";

    my @modules = qw(
                      Spreadsheet::ParseExcel
                      Scalar::Util
                      Unicode::Map
                      Spreadsheet::WriteExcel
                      Parse::RecDescent
                      File::Temp
                      OLE::Storage_Lite
                      IO::Stringy
                    );

    for my $module (@modules) {
        my $version;
        eval "require $module";

        if (not $@) {
            $version = $module->VERSION;
            $version = '(unknown)' if not defined $version;
        }
        else {
            $version = '(not installed)';
        }

        printf "%21s%-24s\t%s\n", "", $module, $version;
    }

    __END__

3) Upgrade to the latest version of Spreadsheet::ParseExcel (or at least test on a system with an upgraded version). The issue you are reporting may already have been fixed.

4) Create a small example program that demonstrates your problem. The program should be as small as possible. A few lines of codes are worth tens of lines of text when trying to describe a bug.

5) Supply an Excel file that demonstrates the problem. This is very important. If the file is big, or contains confidential information, try to reduce it down to the smallest Excel file that represents the issue. If you don't wish to post a file here then send it to me directly: jmcnamara@cpan.org

6) Say if the test file was created by Excel, OpenOffice, Gnumeric or something else. Say which version of that application you used.

7) If you are submitting a patch you should check with the maintainer whether the issue has already been patched or if a fix is in the works. Patches should be accompanied by test cases.

Asking a question

If you would like to ask a more general question there is the Spreadsheet::ParseExcel Google Group.

History Show all quoted text

  Mon Jun 30 21:34:26 2008 mpack [...] jpl.nasa.gov - Ticket created

Subject:	negative time bug
Date:	Mon, 30 Jun 2008 18:34:00 -0700
To:	bug-Spreadsheet-ParseExcel [...] rt.cpan.org
From:	mpack [...] jpl.nasa.gov

If a cell contains a negative value, say -0.1, and the cell is formatted as a "HH:MM" time, then Spreadsheet-ParseExcel returns a $cell->Value of (for instance) "-2:-23" instead of the more correct "21:36". Thank you, Marc Pack

  Wed Oct 15 12:02:55 2008 jmcnamara [...] cpan.org - Correspondence added

On Mon Jun 30 21:34:26 2008, mpack@jpl.nasa.gov wrote: Show quoted text

> If a cell contains a negative value, say -0.1, and the cell is formatted > as a "HH:MM" time, then Spreadsheet-ParseExcel returns a $cell->Value of > (for instance) "-2:-23" instead of the more correct "21:36".

Hi, Are you certain that you can format -0.1 as a time in Excel? I cannot get it to do that. John. --

  Wed Oct 15 12:02:57 2008 The RT System itself - Status changed from 'new' to 'open'

  Fri Oct 24 15:57:08 2008 mpack [...] jpl.nasa.gov - Correspondence added

Subject:	Re: [rt.cpan.org #37261] negative time bug
Date:	Fri, 24 Oct 2008 12:35:09 -0700
To:	bug-Spreadsheet-ParseExcel [...] rt.cpan.org
From:	mpack [...] jpl.nasa.gov

I have attached a spreadsheet containing an example of the problem. Thanks, Marc Quoting John McNamara via RT <bug-Spreadsheet-ParseExcel@rt.cpan.org>, on Wed 15 Oct 2008 09:02:57 AM PDT: Show quoted text

> <URL: http://rt.cpan.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=37261 > > > On Mon Jun 30 21:34:26 2008, mpack@jpl.nasa.gov wrote:

>> If a cell contains a negative value, say -0.1, and the cell is formatted >> as a "HH:MM" time, then Spreadsheet-ParseExcel returns a $cell->Value of >> (for instance) "-2:-23" instead of the more correct "21:36".

> > Hi, > > Are you certain that you can format -0.1 as a time in Excel? I cannot > get it to do that. > > John. > -- > > >

Download neg2a.xls
application/applefile 95k

Message body not shown because it is not plain text.

  Sun Oct 26 14:57:31 2008 jmcnamara [...] cpan.org - Correspondence added 20 min

On Fri Oct 24 15:57:08 2008, mpack@jpl.nasa.gov wrote: Show quoted text

> > I have attached a spreadsheet containing an example of the problem. >

Hi Marc, Thanks for that. The file that you sent doesn't display a negative date in Excel 97, 2003 or 2007. See the attached image. From the structure of the file I'd guess that you created it in OOo and it does in fact show up in OOo in the format you show above. However, it isn't valid in Excel. :-( As such I'd say that this isn't a bug in Spreadsheet::WriteExcel. John. --

Download neg2a.jpg
image/jpeg 35.3k

  Sun Oct 26 14:58:42 2008 jmcnamara [...] cpan.org - Correspondence added

On Sun Oct 26 14:57:31 2008, JMCNAMARA wrote: Show quoted text

> > As such I'd say that this isn't a bug in Spreadsheet::WriteExcel. >

Or rather, Spreadsheet::ParseExcel John. --

  Tue Oct 28 12:45:17 2008 jmcnamara [...] cpan.org - Correspondence added

Hi, I'm going to close this issue. If you still think it is a bug you can open it again or else discuss it on the Spreadsheet::ParseExcel Google group: http://groups.google.com/group/spreadsheet-parseexcel John. --

  Tue Oct 28 12:45:23 2008 jmcnamara [...] cpan.org - Status changed from 'open' to 'resolved'

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