fix: external link indices are quoted where Excel writes them bare - #55
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gthb wants to merge 2 commits into
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fix: external link indices are quoted where Excel writes them bare#55gthb wants to merge 2 commits into
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Excel writes the workbook part of an external reference bare when it is a
link index — SUM([1]Sheet1!A1) — but fx quoted it, producing
SUM('[1]Sheet1'!A1).
needQuotes quotes any scope starting with a digit, to keep it from being
read as a numeric literal. That holds for a bare name, but an external
link index is delimited by its brackets and so cannot be read as a
number. needQuotes now takes a `bracketed` flag, and skips the
digit-leading rule for an all-digit scope when it is set.
The exemption is the index alone. A digit-leading workbook *name*
([1040.xlsx]) is still quoted, so is any digit-leading sheet name, and a
sheet name that needs quotes for its own reasons still quotes the whole
prefix, brackets included.
Nothing was broken by the old spelling — Excel accepts it and normalizes
it away on the next save. The cost was churn: [n] is the commonest
external reference form there is, so every such prefix fx rewrote gained
quotes Excel then removed, as noise in stored formula text and as diff
noise across a round trip.
gthb
marked this pull request as ready for review
August 5, 2026 17:20
The bare index is a second observable change on this path: the left side of a range operator now keeps it bare, while the right side still quotes the whole prefix with the brackets inside the quotes — the spelling Excel accepts.
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What
Stop quoting a reference prefix whose workbook part is an external link index. Excel writes it bare; Fx quoted it:
Nothing breaks (Excel accepts the quoted form and strips it on the next save), but
[n]is the only external reference form a stored workbook uses, so every such prefix Fx rewrites gains quotes Excel then removes: noise in stored formula text, and diff noise across a round trip.Cause
needQuotesquotes any scope starting with a digit, to keep it from reading as a numeric literal. Sound for a bare name, but a link index is delimited by its brackets and so cannot be read as a number.Fix
needQuotestakes abracketedflag and skips the digit-leading rule for an all-digit scope when it is set; both prefix variants pass it.The exemption is the index alone. A digit-leading workbook name (
[1040.xlsx]) stays quoted, as does any digit-leading sheet name, and a sheet name that needs quotes for its own reasons still quotes the whole prefix with the brackets inside the quotes:'[1]Sheet 1'!A1. Translation follows the same rule, so the right side of a range operator, which Excel always quotes, stays'[1]Sheet1'!$B$2.Excel behaviour
Entered against an open external workbook, then read back from the stored
<f>:<f>=SUM([ExtSrc3.xlsx]Alpha!A1)SUM([1]Alpha!A1)=SUM('[ExtSrc3.xlsx]Alpha'!A1)=SUM([ExtSrc3.xlsx]Alpha!A1)SUM([1]Alpha!A1)Normalization runs both ways (Excel adds missing quotes and strips redundant ones), so no hand-written form survives a save unchanged. The one form that is not merely redundant is the partly quoted prefix:
[1]'Alpha'!A1, with the bracket outside the quotes, makes Excel offer to repair the file and drop the cell, while'[1]Alpha'!A1opens fine. Hence quoting the brackets along with the rest.