Re: improvements to INDEX()

[Jody Goldberg <jody gnome org>]

On Sun, Nov 20, 2005 at 02:40:56AM +0000, Nicholas Lamb wrote:
> * INDEX() now returns a reference when appropriate rather than a simple value
> which means you can use it with functions like ROW(), COLUMN() and CELL() to
> give useful results.
ahh interesting.  I had not realized it did that.
 
> * INDEX() now returns range references or arrays (as appropriate) for some
> inputs which were previously poorly defined or error states. This matches
> Excel much more closely than before e.g. INDEX(A1:C4,2,) returns a reference
> to A2:C2 which can then be used together with array syntax to fill multiple
> cells with results.
good.

> * INDEX() now has a special case matching things of the form INDEX(A1:A6,4)
> which was previously meaningless in Gnumeric and now returns a reference to
> A4. This is purely an Excel compatibility change and can be removed if
> considered unsavoury.
That is damn ugly but I can not think of anything better.
Compatibility seems to win.

> I can also prepare an XL compat test sheet for INDEX() if that's helpful
Please.

Additionally this seems like a good time to move the docs to the new
format.  Indeed some of your changes may strain the proposed system.
Please try to use the new layout and see how it works.