https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=173053
Bug ID: 173053
Summary: Option to preserve decimal places exactly as entered
for numeric cells, decimal places have tolerance
meaning.
Product: LibreOffice
Version: unspecified
Hardware: All
OS: All
Status: UNCONFIRMED
Severity: enhancement
Priority: medium
Component: Calc
Assignee: [email protected]
Reporter: [email protected]
Calc currently discards the number of decimal places entered when trailing
digits are zero. For example, entering 12.300 may subsequently display as 12.3,
depending on the cell's number format.
In engineering, scientific and metrology applications, the number of decimal
places/significant figures entered can itself carry information about the
required precision or implied tolerance. Thus 12.3, 12.30 and 12.300, while
numerically equal, are not necessarily semantically equivalent.
Currently the user must either store the value as text, losing normal numeric
behaviour, or explicitly assign a fixed-decimal number format beforehand.
Requested behaviour: Provide a workbook/sheet/cell option whereby a numeric
value retains the number of decimal places explicitly entered by the user,
while remaining a numeric value usable in calculations.
For example:
12.3 → display 12.3
12.30 → display 12.30
12.300 → display 12.300
Ideally this could be enabled as a workbook-wide setting so that engineering
spreadsheets preserve entered precision without requiring individual cell
formatting.
The setting should affect presentation/metadata rather than alter the
underlying numeric value used for calculations.
The data is entered and calc immediately corrupts the data, i.e. for an
Engineering dimension the default, inferred tolerance is changed and therefore
the manufactured part can be wrong. It is standard in scientific and
Engineering for default tolerance or resolutions to be used that are dependant
on the decimal places shown, so 12.00 could have a default project tolerance of
+/- 0.020 where as 12 could have a tolerance of +/- 0.4 mm. This difference
could result in a catastrophic failure. Any further use of the data is
potentially corrupt as presentations or documents would display false data
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