Problem with standard filter

users
#1

Hi,

I hope someone can help me with this...

I have a spreadsheet with around 4000 rows in it. It has an autofilter in de co;umn headings.
In column B I have some 10 fields containing aaa, and 3 fields bbb.
Now I filter on bbb
I clear the 3 fields
If I mark all (it is not marked upon opening) in the filter I get indeed the whole list

If I now repeat this for the aaa fields:
upon opening the all and aaa is ticked
If I unselect ALL, aaa gets unselected too (reasonable, since that the gebaviour for more the one slection values too)
If I now select aaa, the ALL mark is also automatically selected!!

This looks plain wrong to me since no filtering is different then filtering on 1 value, since there are also empty fields.

OK, the workaround is selecting on 'not empty'
Now the tick on 'aaa' is cleared, which seems wrong too!

Now I clear the values
Now the tick is set at ALL, and I can't clear the filter anymore... (the button is blue)

Workaround:
enter a bogus value in the column
Select all (the select mark goes off)
Now delete the value

Working on Mac OSX 10.7.5, LO 4.2.4.2 (build 63150712c6d317d27ce2db16eb94c2f3d7b699f8)

Am I missing something here?

Best,
Rob.

#2

"Rob Jasper":

If I unselect ALL, aaa gets unselected too (reasonable, since that the gebaviour for more the one slection values too)
If I now select aaa, the ALL mark is also automatically selected!!
This looks plain wrong to me since no filtering is different then filtering on 1 value, since there are also empty fields.

https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=46062

#3

Urmas wrote:

"Rob Jasper":

If I unselect ALL, aaa gets unselected too (reasonable, since that the
gebaviour for more the one slection values too)
If I now select aaa, the ALL mark is also automatically selected!!
This looks plain wrong to me since no filtering is different then
filtering on 1 value, since there are also empty fields.

https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=46062

Good catch; I had to read it a couple of times to see that the original comments before yours are describing a similar problem. I've added a demo file and more detailed description which is hopefully sufficient for others to reproduce.

It is possible to do what is asked, using the more advanced "Standard Filter..." dialog rather than the immediately visible tick boxes. The way the tick boxes work in this case isn't particularly intuitive though, particularly when they give the impression that the current filter is set to something other than what it is.

Mark.

#4

The same inconsistency also makes that if one filter on the only one value available by filtering on 'Not empty', and subsequently deletes the value fro the visible rows, it is impossible to switch off the selection (since 'All' doesn't work as being really all).

I opened [Bug 81577] for this.

#5

Ah yes, I didn't mention that bit on my addition to #46062. A workaround for that case is:
- Select "Standard Filter..." rather than any tick boxes
- Set the "Field name" to "- none -"
- Click "OK"

I notice you've mentioned on #46062 that Excel includes a "(blanks)" option. That's the kind of thing I was thinking, but not sure how to avoid confusion with a filter for cells literally containing "(blanks)". How does Excel handle that? Do you get two seemingly identical entries - one to filter for blank cells and one for cells containing the string "(blanks)" - or is the one for blank cells unambiguously different in some way?

Mark.

Rob Jasper wrote:

#6

Mark,

I tested that briefly in Excel. Excel doen't seem to make difference in v
blank cells and cels containing one or more spaces. I had blank cells, cells with one space, and cells with 2 spaces. Only one selection came up, and it selected all 3 variations.

I also tested prepending spaces to values, and adding trailing spaces, and they are ignored to ('aaa' considered the same as ' aaa' ands 'aaa '.
I assume the cell values are left and right trimmed before being considered for filtering.

Rob.

#7

Mark,

forgot to mention that, although the reported problems are different, bugs 81577 and 46062 are very related. They might be solved by one solution..

Rob.

#8

Sorry - replied from the wrong account; I've resent from an address subscribed to the list. Please don't forward the moderated copy to the list.

Thanks,
Mark.

Mark Bourne wrote:

#9

Ah yes, I didn't mention that bit on my addition to #46062. A workaround for that case is:
- Select "Standard Filter..." rather than any tick boxes
- Set the "Field name" to "- none -"
- Click "OK"

I notice you've mentioned on #46062 that Excel includes a "(blanks)" option. That's the kind of thing I was thinking, but not sure how to avoid confusion with a filter for cells literally containing "(blanks)". How does Excel handle that? Do you get two seemingly identical entries - one to filter for blank cells and one for cells containing the string "(blanks)" - or is the one for blank cells unambiguously different in some way?

Mark.

Rob Jasper wrote: