[solved] insert cell value from another spreadsheet file

Ewald · OOo Advocate Joined: 16 Dec 2005 Posts: 392

I have a spreadsheet (spreadsheet 1) and want to insert certain values from another spreadsheet file (spreadsheet 2). I select an empty cell in spreadsheet 1, select '=', go into spreadsheet 2, select the cell with the value I want and hit Enter. Sometimes it works, sometime I have a zero displayed although the cell in spreadsheet 2 contains another value.
All cells of interest are formated to Number-General, the values to be displayed are INT values.

Obviously I am missing something

I am using OOo 3.2 under Linux 10.04

Villeroy · Posted: Sat Jun 23, 2012 1:36 am Post subject:

It can not work when the source file is brand new and not saved yet.
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Ewald · OOo Advocate Joined: 16 Dec 2005 Posts: 392

Well, in the mean time I had some success with closing both files and reopening spreadsheet 1. The dialog box asking for updating the links might have been the key.

However, if I copy the formula yielding the right result into another field, it shows zero again. Even after updating the link. Thus I have two cells with the identical formula but only one showing the correct value. Hard to understand!

Thanks for your input though, my original problem seems to be solved although I don't understand really what's going on.

Villeroy · Posted: Sat Jun 23, 2012 2:16 am Post subject:

I remember that external links have suffered from lots of "improvements" during the last years. It could be that your old 3.2 version falls into some period of inconsistency. I can't recall all the trouble since version 3.2.
I think it is wise to avoid external links wherever possible even when the feature seems to work as advertised. One thing that is impossible to solve: When you expand the list in the source file by insertion of new cells, it is impossible to track this change in the other file which may be loaded or not or may not even reside on the same computer system.

If you try so hard to do database tasks in a spreadsheet, keep all related data in one master file. Spreadsheets need to load all data anyway.
External links maintain hidden data copies of the source file within the target file. DDE-links load any referred file invisibly.
You do not save any resources when you try to split data into separate files.
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Ewald · OOo Advocate Joined: 16 Dec 2005 Posts: 392

Thanks again for your effort, Villeroy. I know that the real solution is a database but I haven't been able to motivate myself to design one.