Calc Guide

Functions available in Calc
Calc provides all of the commonly used functions found in modern
spreadsheet applications. Since many of Calc’s functions require very
specific and carefully calculated input arguments, the descriptions in
this appendix should not be considered complete references for each
function. Refer to the application Help or the OOo wiki for details and
examples of all functions. On the wiki, start with
http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Documentation/How_Tos/Calc:_
Functions_listed_by_category
Over 300 standard functions are available in Calc. More can be added
through extensions to Calc (see Chapter 14). The following tables list
Calc’s functions organized into eleven categories.
Note
Functions whose names end with _ADD are provided for
compatibility with Microsoft Excel functions. They return the
same results as the corresponding functions in Excel (without the
suffix), which though they may be correct, are not based on
international standards.
Terminology: numbers and arguments
Some of the descriptions in this appendix define limitations on the
number of values or arguments that can be passed to the function.
Specifically, functions that refer to the following arguments may lead
to confusion.
• Number_1; number_2;... number_30
• Number 1 to 30
• a list of up to 30 numbers
There is a significant difference between a list of numbers (or integers)
and the number of arguments a function will accept. For, example the
SUM function will only accept a maximum of 30 arguments. This limit
does NOT mean that you can only sum 30 numbers, but that you can
only pass 30 separate arguments to the function.
Arguments are values separated by semi-colons, and can include
ranges which often refer to multiple values. Therefore one argument
can refer to several values, and a function that limits input to 30
arguments may in fact accept more then 30 separate numerical values.
This appendix attempts to clarify this situation by using the term
arguments, rather than any of the other phrases.
Appendix B Description of Functions 429