=head1 NAME
ODF::lpOD::Table - Table management
=head1 DESCRIPTION
The present manual page introduces the way lpOD allows the user to handle
ODF I<tables> and their components, namely the I<columns>, I<rows> and
I<cells>.
The lpOD API doesn't make differences between document types in this area. So,
tables are dealed with in the same way for a spreadsheet document (whose content
is just a set of tables) as for any other document.
A table is an instance of the lpOD C<odf_table> class.
An C<odf_table> object is a structured container that holds two sets
of objects, a set of I<rows> and a set of I<columns>, and that is
optionally associated with a I<table style>.
The basic information unit in a table is the I<cell>. Every cell is
contained in a row. Table columns don't contain cells; an ODF column
holds information related to the layout of a particular column at the
display time, not content data.
A cell can directly contain one or more paragraphs. However, a cell
may be used as a container for high level containers, including lists,
tables, sections and frames.
Every table is identified by a name (which must be unique for the
document) and may own some optional properties.
=head1 Table creation and retrieval
Like any other C<odf_element> table may be created either from scratch
according to various parameters or by cloning an existing table using the
generic C<clone> method of C<odf_element>. The second way is the most
recommended one because, while it looks very easy to create a table with a
default appearance, a typical convenient layout may require a lot of style
definitions and is much more difficult to specify by program than through a
point-and-click interface.
A table is created using C<odf_create_table> with a mandatory name as its first
argument and the following optional parameters:
=over
C<width>, C<length>: the initial size of the new table (rows and columns),
knowing that it's zero-sized by default (beware: because cells are contained
in rows, no cell is created as long as C<width> is less than C<1>);
=item
C<size>: specifies a length and a width (in this order) as a single string
(the two values are comma-separated); may replace C<length> and C<width>;
=item
C<style>: the name of a table style, already existing or to be defined;
=item
C<cell style>: the style to use by default for every cell in the table;
=item
C<protected>: a boolean that, if C<TRUE>, means that the table should
be write-protected when the document is edited through a user-oriented,
interactive application (of course, such a protection doesn't prevent
an lpOD-based tool from modifying the table)(default is C<FALSE>);
=item
C<protection key>: a (supposedly encrypted) string that represents
a password; if this parameter is set and if C<protected> is C<TRUE>,
a end-user interactive application should ask for a password that matches
this string before removing the write-protection (beware, such a protection
is I<not> a security feature);
=item
C<print>: boolean, tells that the table should be printable; default is
C<TRUE>;
=item
C<print ranges>: the cell ranges to be printed, if some areas are not to be
printed; the value of this parameter is a space-separated list of cell ranges
expressed in spreadsheet-style format (ex: C<"E6:K12">).
=back
Once created, a table may be incorporated somewhere using C<insert_element>
of C<append_element>, like any other C<odf_element>.
I<Caution: a table should not be inserted in any context. For example, a table
should not be inserted within a paragraph. A bad placement may corrupt the
document structure. Right contexts are, for example, the document body (in a
spreadsheet or text document), a section (in a text document) or a table cell
(knowing that the ODF standard allows nested tables).>
The style of a table may be retrieved or changed at any time using the generic
C<get_style()> and C<set_style()> accessors.
A table may be retrieved in a document according to its unique name using
the context-based C<get_table_by_name> with the name as argument. It may
be selected by its sequential position in the list of the tables belonging
to the context, using C<get_table_by_position>, with a zero-based numeric
argument (possibly counted back from the end if the argument is negative).
A C<get_table()> method is provided, that works like C<get_table_by_position()>
if the argument is numeric or like C<get_table_by_name()> otherwise (of course,
if the name of the desired table looks like a number, there is no choice but
C<get_table_by_name()> to retrieve it by name). Without argument,
C<get_table()> returns the first table in the context (if any).
In addition, it's possible to retrieve a table according to its content,
through C<get_table_by_content>; this method returns the first table (in
the order of the document) whose text content matches the given argument,
which is regarded as a regular expression.
In addition, an application can get all the tables of a given context using
the C<get_tables()> method, without argument.
An application may retrieve a table from any element that belong to it, thanks
to the C<get_parent_table()> method. This method returns C<undef> if the
calling element is not in a table. Knowing that a paragraph may be included
in a table cell and that a table cell indirectly belongs to a table, the
following sequence selects a paragraph matching a given expression and, if the
paragraph belongs to a table, displays the table name:
$p = $context->get_paragraph(content => "xyz");
die "Content not found\n" unless $p;
$t = $p->get_parent_table;
say $t ? $t->get_name : "Not in a table";
=head1 Table content retrieval
A table object provides methods that allow to retrieve any column, row or cell
using its logical position. A position may be expressed using either zero-based
numeric coordinates, or alphanumeric, spreadsheet-like coordinates. For example
the top left cell should be addressed either by C<(0,0)> or by C<"A1">. On the
other hand, numeric coordinates only allow the user to address an object
relatively to the end of the table; for example, C<(-1,-1)> designates the last
cell of the last row whatever the table size.
Table object selection methods return a null value, without error, when the
given address is out of range.
The number of rows and columns may be got using the C<odf_table> C<get_size>
method.
An individual cell is selected using C<get_cell> with either a pair of
numeric arguments corresponding to the row then the column, or an alphanumeric
argument whose first character is a letter. The second argument, if provided,
is ignored as soon as the first one begins with a letter.
The two following instructions are equivalent and return the second cell of the
second row in a table (assuming that C<$t> is a previously selected table):
$cell = $t->get_cell('B2');
$cell = $t->get_cell(1, 1);
C<get_row()> allows the user to select a table row as an ODF element. This
method requires a zero-based numeric value.
C<get_column()> works according to the same logic and returns a table column
ODF element.
The full set of row and column objects may be selected using the table-based
C<get_rows()> and C<get_columns()> methods. By default these methods
return respectively the full list of rows or columns. They can be restricted to
a specified range of rows or columns. The restriction may be expressed through
two numeric, zero-based arguments indicating the positions of the first and the
last item of the range. Alternatively, the range may be specified using a more
"spreadsheet-like" syntax, in only one alphanumeric argument representing the
visible representation of the range through a GUI; this argument is the
concatenation of the visible numbers of the starting and ending elements,
separated by a ":", knowing that "1" is the visible number of the row zero
while "A" is the visible number or the column zero. As a consequence, the two
following instructions are equivalent and return a list including the rows from
5 to 10 belonging to the table I<t>:
@rows = $t->get_rows(5, 10);
@rows = $t->get_rows('6:11');
According to the same logic, each of the two instruction below returns the
columns from 8 to 15:
@cols = $t->get_columns(8, 15);
@cols = $t->get_columns('I:P');
Once selected, knowing that cells are contained in rows, a row-based
C<get_cell()> method is provided. When called from a row object,
C<get_cell()> requires the same parameter as the table-based C<get_column()>
method. For example, the following sequence returns the same cell as in the
previous example:
$r = $t->get_row(1);
$c = $r->get_cell(1);
A column-based C<get_cell()> method is provided, too, but it's much less
efficient. In addition, the column-based C<get_cell()> may fail with a
warning when used in I<read optimize> mode (see below).
A row set may be selected according to the content of a specified column,
thanks to C<get_rows_by_index()>. The following example selects all the rows
(if any) where the 'C' cell (i.e. the cell at the 3rd position) contains
"XYZ":
@rows = $table->get_rows_by_index(C => "XYZ");
Note that this method allows an alternative syntax; the column may be
specified by its numeric (zero-based) position:
@rows = $table->get_rows_by_index(2, "XYZ");
The first argument (or the key in hash notation) specifies the "index" (i.e.
the column that must match a given condition) while the second argument is
the search value. The result set is selected according to a smart match.
Alternatively, C<get_row_by_index()> returns the first matching row, like
C<get_rows_by_index()> in scalar context.
Remember that there is no real index in a spreadsheet table; this method
mimics the use of an arbitrary column as the "key" to select a data set,
but the underlying mechanism is not a database engine; the rows are scanned
sequentially, so take care of possible performance issues with large tables.
=head1 Cell range selection
C<get_cells> extracts rectangular ranges of cells in order to allow the
applications to store and process them out of the document tree, through
regular 2D tables. The range selection is defined by the coordinates of the
top left and the bottom right cells of the target area. C<get_cells> allows
two possible syntaxes, i.e. the spreadsheet-like one and the numeric one.
The first one requires an alphanumeric argument whose first character is a
letter and which includes a ':', while the second one requires four numeric
arguments. As an example, the two following instructions, which are equivalent,
return a bi-dimensional array corresponding to the cells of the C<B2:D15> area
of a table:
@cells = $table->get_cells("B2:D15");
@cells = $table->get_cells(1,1,14,3);
Note that, after such a selection, C<$cells[0][0]> contains the "B2" cell of
the ODF table.
If C<get_cells> is called without argument, the selection covers the whole
table.
A row object has its own C<get_cell()> method. The row based version of
C<get_cells()> returns, of course, a one-row table of cell objects. When
used without argument, it selects all the cells of the row. It may be called
with either a pair of numeric arguments that represent the start and the end
positions of the cell range, or an alphanumeric argument (whose the numeric
content is ignored and should be omitted) corresponding to the start and end
columns in conventional spreadsheet notation. The following example shows two
ways to select the same cell range (beginning at the 2nd position and ending
at the 26th one) in a previously selected row:
@cells = $r->get_cells('B:Z');
@cells = $r->get_cells(1, 25);
The elements of the Perl table returned by C<get_cells> are references to the
cells of the ODF table (not copies); the Perl table just maps an ODF table
area, and any cell property change made through this Perl table affects the
underlying ODF cell.
A column-based version of C<get_cells()> is available, too, but it should be
avoided with large tables, and it may explicitly fail in C<read optimize> mode.
=head1 Row and column customization
The objects returned by C<get_row> and C<get_column> can be customized
using the standard C<set_attribute> or C<set_attributes> method. Possible
attributes are:
=over
=item
C<default cell style name>: the default style which apply to each cell in the
column or row unless this cell has no defined style attribute;
=item
C<visibility>: specifies the visibility of the row or column; legal values
are C<'visible'>, C<'collapse'> and C<'filter'>.
=back
The style may be get or set using C<get_style> or C<set_style>.
=head1 Table expansion and shrinking
=head2 Row and column insertion
A table may be expanded vertically and horizontally, using its C<add_row> and
C<add_column> methods.
C<add_row> allows the user to insert one or more rows at a given position in
the table. The new rows are copies of an existing one. Without argument, a
single row is just appended as the end. A C<number> named parameter specifies
the number of rows to insert.
An optional C<before> named parameter may be provided; if defined, the value
of this parameter must be a row number (in numeric, zero-based form) in the
range of the table; the new rows are created as clones of the row existing at
the given position then inserted at this position, i.e. I<before> the original
reference row. A C<after> parameter may be provided instead of C<before>;
it produces a similar result, but the new rows are inserted I<after> the
reference row. Note that the two following instructions produce the same
result (assuming C<$t> is a previously selected or created table):
$t->add_row(number => 1, after => -1);
$t->add_row();
The instruction below creates new rows at the beginning of the table:
$t->add_row(number => 4, before => 0);
The inserted rows are initialized as clones of the row used as the reference
through the C<after> or C<before> or of the last existing row if the new
row in appended at the end. So the new rows (and their cells) inherit the same
style and content as an existing one.
However, a few options allow the applications to override this default
behavior:
=over
=item
C<empty>, if set to C<TRUE>, specifies that the new cells will be created
without content and without data type;
=item
C<style> allows to specify a particular style for the new row; if this
parameter is provided but set to C<undef>, the new rows are created without
style (i.e. they take neither the style of the cloned row nor any other
style);
=item
C<cell style> allows to specify a particular style for every cell in the new
rows; if this parameter is provided but set to C<undef>, the cells of the new
rows are created without style.
=back
The C<add_column> method does the same thing with columns as C<add_row>
for rows, and allows the same options. However, because the cells belong to
rows, it works according to a very different logic. C<add_column> inserts new
column objects (clones of an existing column), then it goes through all the
rows and inserts new cells (cloning the cell located at the reference
position) in each one.
Of course, it's possible to use C<insert_element> in order to insert a row,
a column or a cell externally created (or copied from an other table from
another document), provided that the user carefully checks the consistency of
the resulting construct. As an example, the following sequence appends a copy
of the first row of C<$t1> after the 5th row of C<$t2>:
$to_be_inserted = $t1->get_row(0)->clone;
$t2->insert_element($to_be_inserted, after => $t2->get_row(5));
While a table may be expanded vertically using C<add_row>, each row may be
expanded using the C<odf_row> C<add_cell> method whose parameters and behavior
are the same as the table-based C<add_row> method.
=head2 Row and column deletion
Rows and columns may be individually deleted using C<delete_row()> and
C<delete_column()>, respectively. The required argument for these methods is
the row or column position in the table, i.e. the same as C<get_row()> or
C<get_column()>.
The common C<delete()> method may be used from a previously selected row or
column object. So, the two snippets below are equivalent:
# with delete_row
$table->delete_row($row_number);
# without delete_row
$row = $table->get_row($row_number);
$row->delete;
Knowing that table cells are contained in row, removing a row automatically
removes the corresponding cells. The internal logic of C<delete_column()>,
that removes the cells of the deleted column, behaves as if the cells were
contained in the columns, too. However, it's possible to delete a column
without deleting the corresponding cells. To do so, a C<propagate> option must
be provided and set to C<FALSE>. Such option may put the table in an
inconsistent state, so it should be used for very special purposes only (such
as cleaning an inconsistent table).
The C<delete()> method should not be confused with the C<clear()> method that,
when called from a row or column object, removes the content of every cell
in the row or column but doesn't remove any cell, row or column.
=head1 Row and column group handling
The content expansion and content selection methods above work with the table
body. However it's possible to manage groups of rows or columns. A group may
be created with existing adjacent rows or columns, using C<set_row_group()>
and C<set_column_group()> respectively. These methods take two arguments, which
are the numeric positions of the starting and ending elements of the group.
However, these numeric arguments may be replaced by a single alphanumeric
range definition argument, so the following instructions are equivalent; both
create a group including the same 3 columns ("C" to "E"):
$column_group = $table->set_column_group(3, 5);
$column_group = $table->set_column_group("C:E");
The same idea apply to row groups; however, beware that in range alphanumeric
notation, the numbers represents the spreadsheet end-user point of view, so
they are one-based; as an example, the two following instructions, that create
a row group including the rows 3 to 5, are equivalent:
$row_group = $table->set_row_group(3, 5);
$row_group = $table->set_row_group("4:6");
In addition, an optional C<display> named boolean parameter may be provided
(default=C<TRUE>), instructing the applications about the visibility of the
group.
Both C<set_row_group()> and C<set_column_group()> return an object which can
be used later as a context object for any row, column or cell retrieval or
processing. An existing group may be retrieved according to its numeric
position using C<get_row_group()> or C<get_column_group()> with the position
as argument, or without argument to get the first (or the only one) group.
A group can't bring a particular style; it's just visible or not. Once created,
its visibility may be turned on and off by changing its C<display> value
through C<set_attribute()>.
Knowing that cells depends on rows, a row group provides the same C<get_cell()>
method as a table. It provides a C<get_row()> method, while a column group
provides a C<get_column()> one.
A row group provides a C<add_row()> method, while a column group provides a
C<add_column()> method. These methods work like their table-based versions,
and they allow the user to expand the content of a particular group.
Row and column group may be collapsed or expanded using their C<collapse()> and
C<uncollapse()> methods.
It's possible to delete all the cell contents of a group using C<clear()>.
This method doesn't remove any row or column; it just erases the content and,
if any, the style and the annotation of every cell. Beware that the column
group based version of C<clear()> is much slower than the row group based
version.
=head1 Table headers
One or more rows or columns in the beginning of a table may be organized as
a I<header>. Row and columns headers are created using the C<set_row_header()>
and C<set_column_header()> table-based methods, and retrieved using
C<get_row_header()> and C<get_column_header()>. A row header object brings its
own C<add_row()> method, which works like the table-based C<add_row()> but
appends the new rows in the space of the row header. The same logic applies to
column headers which have a C<add_column()> method. An optional positive
integer argument may specify the number or rows or columns to include in the
header (default=1).
Note that a I<column header> is a I<row> or a set of I<rows> containing
column titles that should be automatically repeated on every page if the table
does not fit on a single page, while a I<row headers> is a I<column> or a set
of I<columns> containing I<row titles>. In the present version, I<row headers>
are not fully supported.
A table can't directly contain more than one row header and one column header.
However, a column group can contain a column header, while a row group can
contain a row header. So the header-focused methods above work with groups as
well as with tables.
A table header doesn't bring particular properties; it's just a construct
allowing the author to designate rows and columns that should be automatically
repeated on every page if the table doesn't fit on a single page.
The ``get_xxx()`` table-based retrieval methods ignore the content of the
headers. However, it's always possible to select a header, then to used it as
the context object to select an object using its coordinates inside the header.
For example, the first instruction below gets the first cell of a table body,
while the third and third instructions select the first cell of a table header::
c1 = table.get_cell(0,0)
header = table.get_header()
c2 = header.get_cell(0,0)
=head1 Individual cell property handling
A cell owns both a I<content> and some I<properties> which may be processed
separately.
The cell content is a list of one or more ODF elements. While this content is
generally made of a single paragraph, it may contain several paragraphs and
various other objects. The user can attach any content element to a cell using
the standard C<insert_element> method. However, for the simplest (and the
most usual) cases, it's possible to use C<set_text>. The cell-based
C<set_text> method diffs from the generic C<odf_element> C<set_text>: it removes
the previous content elements, if any, then creates a single paragraph with the
given text as the new content. In addition, this method accepts an optional
C<style> named parameter, allowing the user to set a paragraph style for the
new content. To insert more content (i.e. additional paragraphs and/or other
ODF elements), the needed objects have to be created externally and attached
to the cell using C<insert_element> or C<append_element>. Alternatively, it's
possible to remove the existing content (if any) and attach a full set of
content elements in a single instruction using C<set_content>; this last cell
method takes a list of arbitrary ODF elements and appends them (in the given
order) as the new content.
The generic C<group()> method may be used to grab a list of paragraphs in order
to move them in the cell. As an example, the following instruction moves all
the paragraphs containing a given substring in a given cell:
$table->get_cell("B4")->group(
$doc->get_body->get_paragraphs(content => "XYZ")
);
The C<get_content> cell method returns all the content elements as a list.
For the simplest cases, the cell-based C<get_text> method directly returns
the text content as a flat string, without any structural information and
whatever the number and the type of the content elements.
The cell properties may be read or changes using C<get_xxx> and C<set_xxx>
methods, where C<xxx> stands for one of the following:
=over
=item
C<style>: the name of the cell style;
=item
C<type>: the cell value type, which may be one of the ODF supported data
types, used when the cell have to contain a computable value (may be omitted
with text cells, knowing that the default type is C<'string'>);
=item
C<value>: the numeric computable value of the cell, used when the C<type> is
defined (for a string cell, C<get_value> and C<set_value> are equivalents
of C<get_text> and C<set_text>);
=item
C<currency>: the international standard currency unit identifier (ex: EUR,
USD), used when the C<type> is C<'currency'>;
=item
C<formula>: a calculation formula whose result is a computable value (the
grammar and syntax of the formula is application-specific and not checked
by the lpOD API (it's stored as flat text and not interpreted);
=item
C<protect>: boolean (default C<FALSE>), tells the applications that the cell
can't be edited.
=back
If C<set_currency> is used with a non-null value, then the C<type> of the
cell is automatically set to C<'currency'>. If C<set_type> forces a type that
is not C<'currency'>, then the cell currency is unset.
A cell may be annotated using C<set_annotation()>. The cell-based version of
this method works like the paragraph-based version, described in
L<ODF::lpOD::TextElement>, but the positioning options are ignored. A cell
annotation is not linked to a text position and may be attached to an empty
cell. A C<display> boolean option (whose default is C<FALSE>) may be provided
in order to make the annotation automatically visible in the sheet.
It's possible to remove all the content and the properties of a cell, including
any possible formula, annotation, style, and so on, with the C<clear()> method.
In addition, C<clear()> removes any multi-row or multi-column span.
Note that it's possible to clear the content of all the cells of a row, a
column, a row group, a column group, or a table, with the respective C<clear()>
methods of these objects. These methods don't remove the cells themselves.
However, remember that the column and column group based versions of C<clear()>
are very slow.
=head1 Special cell value extractors
Two access methods are available to directly get the value(s) of one ore more
specified cells, without explicit access to the cell objects. These accessors
are not syntactic sugar only; they may allow better performances in some
situations.
=head2 Individual cell value extraction
An application may directly get the value of a specified cell without previous
selection of the cell object. As an example, the two following instructions
produce the same result:
$value = $table->get_cell($row, $column)->get_value;
$value = $table->get_cell_value($row, $column);
=head2 Data set extraction or aggregate computation
Alongside the C<get_cells()> method, a C<get_cell_values()> method allows the
user to get either value lists or basic value aggregates. This method requires
a regular cell data type as its first argument, followed by a cell range
specification according to the same logic as C<get_cells()>. The cells whose
data type is not the given type are ignored. As an example, the following
example creates a value list whose content comes from all the C<currency>
cells of the "E2:G10" range:
@values = $table->get_cell_values('currency', 'E2:G10');
The allowed types are C<string>, C<date>, C<time>, C<float>, C<currency>, and
C<boolean>. However, a special C<all> indicator may be used as first argument
instead of a regular data type; if so, all the non-empty cells are selected.
In the resulting 2D list, C<undef> values occupy the places of non-matching
or empty cells, in order to provide a consistent mapping of the corresponding
table area.
C<get_cell_values()> may be used as a I<row> or I<column> method. The most
efficient one is the row-based version. Both return a one-dimension list,
without null value (the non-matching and empty cells are ignored). So the
instruction below produces a list of all the C<currency> amounts found between
(and including) the 3rd and the 8th cells of the 4th row of a table:
$row = $table->get_row(3);
@amounts = $row->get_cell_values('currency', 'C:H');
C<get_cell_values()>, when used in scalar context, returns a small array ref
whose item 0 is the number of non-empty cells matching the given type in the
range, and whose the following items depend on the data type. The two
following positions are the min and the max values for every type but
C<boolean>; for booleans, they respectively contain the number of true values
and the number of false values. For the C<string> type, the min and the max
are selected by default according to the standard Perl C<cmp> string
comparison function (that is not always convenient for international character
sets), but the user may provide a custom function (whose external behavior
must comply with C<cmp>, i.e. whose possible results are -1, 0, 1). An
additional item, containing the arithmetic sum, is provided at the last
position for the C<float>, C<currency> and C<percentage> types only. As an
example, the following code displays the count, the min, the max and the sum
of the C<float> cells in the "E2:G10" range:
$r = $table->get_cell_values('float', 'E2:G10');
say "I found $r->[0] values";
say "...from $r->[1] to $r->[2]";
say "...and the grand total is $r->[3]";
=head1 Cell span expansion
A cell may be expanded in so it covers one or more adjacent columns and/or rows.
The cell-based C<set_span()> method allows the user to control this expansion.
It takes C<rows> and C<columns> as parameters, specifying the number of rows
and the number of columns covered. The following example selects the "B4" cell
then expands it over 4 columns and 3 rows:
$cell = $table->get_cell('B4');
$cell->set_span(rows => 3, columns => 4);
The existing span of a cell may be get using C<get_span()>, which returns the
C<rows> and C<columns> values.
This method changes the previous span of the cell. The default value for each
parameter is 1, so a C<set_span()> without argument reduces the cell at its
minimal span.
When a cell is covered due to the span of another cell, it remains present and
holds its content and properties. However, it's possible to know at any time if
a given cell is covered or not through the boolean C<is_covered()> cell method.
In addition, the span values of a covered cell are automatically set to 1, and
C<set_span()> is forbidden with covered cells.
Note that a cell that spreads over multiple rows and/or columns is reduced to
the minimal size by C<clear()>.
=head1 Performance issues
The table-oriented access methods perform relatively well against tables
including up to thousands, if not tens of thousands of cells. So there is no
performance issue with tables belonging to text documents. On the other hand,
spreadsheet documents may contain tables whose size in potentially unlimited.
As soon as you are faced to wrong response times and overloaded CPUs, you may
consider using the following workarounds, which can (sometimes) improve the
performances, possibly at the cost of a reduced functionality.
=head2 Accessing cells from rows
Remember that cells belong to rows and rows belong to tables. As a consequence,
accessing a cell is faster from the row than from the table. So, each time you
need to get several cells belonging to the same row, you should first get the
row then use it as the context for subsequent cell accesses. As an illustration,
each of the two following code snippets scans a whole table and loads the text
of every cell in a list, but the second one is faster:
# table scan, way 1
my @text = ();
my ($l, $w) = $table->get_size;
for (my $i = 0 ; $i < $l ; $i++) {
for (my $j = 0 ; $j < $w ; $j++) {
push @text, $table->get_cell($i, $j)->get_text;
}
}
# table scan, way 2
my @text = ();
my ($l, $w) = $table->get_size;
for (my $i = 0 ; $i < $l ; $i++) {
my $row = $table->get_row($i);
for (my $j = 0 ; $j < $w ; $j++) {
push @text, $row->get_cell($j)->get_text;
}
}
At a higher level but for the same reasons, C<get_cell()> and C<get_cells()>
are slower as column group methods that as table or row group methods. In other
words, when a cell belongs to the intersection of a row group and a column
group, it may be accessed faster from the table or the row group than from the
column group.
=head2 Selecting cell values instead of cells
Each time an application needs to get cells in order to extract their values
without update, the special C<get_cell_value()> and C<get_cell_values()>
methods should be preferred.
As an example, the two following instructions produce the same result but the
second one is more efficient in a large table:
$value = $table->get_cell($row, $column)->get_value;
$value = $table->get_cell_value($row, $column);
Similarly, the two following snippets produce the same result set but the
second one is more efficient (and not only code-saving) than the first
one in a large spreadsheet:
# first form
@values = ();
push @values, scalar $_->get_value
for $row->get_cells($start, $end);
# second form
@values = $row->get_cell_values($start, $end);
=head2 Mapping ODF tables with Perl lists
Thanks to C<get_cells()>, you can easily associate a Perl table to a selected
area in a document table. As an example, the following instruction produces
a 2D Perl list that maps the "B4:Z50" area in a given table:
my @cells = $table->get_cells("B4:Z50");
While C<get_cells()> is a costly method, it provides an array of pre-selected
cells. Beware that C<get_cells()> returns the cells themselves, not copies, so,
after the instruction above, C<$cells[0][0]> is the "B4" cell of the ODF table,
while C<$cells[-1][-1]> is the "Z50" cell, and so on. As a consequence, the
2 instructions below are functionally equivalent, but the second one in much
faster because there is no need to look for the cell in the XML data structure:
$text = $table->get_cell("C5")->get_text;
$text = $cells[1][1]->get_text;
Using such a mapping doesn't significantly improve the overall performances,
but it allows the applications to execute the slow job once for all, then
provide a good interactivity. However, be careful about very large areas:
using C<get_cells()> to load hundreds of thousands of cells is too slow to be
practical. In addition, the mapping is no longer accurate as soon as the
structure of the underlying table is changed due to row/column insertions or
deletions. For read-only access, have a look at the "read optimized" option
(introduced below) that could help.
=head2 Working area limitation
The global size of a typical spreadsheet table is by far larger than the size
of the really used part. As an example, your spreadsheet processor may silently
store a 65536x1024 table while the last really used cell is, say, Z50,
so the size of the useful part is 50x26. In such a situation, lpOD can't
automatically decide what is the useful size, so it processes the full size.
The first result is a huge time and resource waste. As soon as you know the
useful size of a table, you can instruct the C<odf_table> instance to ignore
the extra area, thanks to C<set_working_area()>. The instruction below tells
that, for the current session, the table will be processed as if its size was
500x100:
my $table = $doc->get_body->get_table("Sheet1");
$table->set_working_area(500, 100);
Note that this operational restriction has no effect if the real size is
smaller than the given size. On the other hand, C<set_working_area()> doesn't
destroy the table content that resides out of the working area, if any; it just
prevents you from accessing any object beyond your declared limits through
the official table-oriented methods, namely C<get_row()>, C<get_cell()>, and
C<get_column()>. However, the "hidden" area remains available for low-level
hacking with basic element handling methods (for example, if you issue a
C<get_paragraphs()> from the table object, it will look for all the paragraphs
belonging to all the real cells of the calling table).
The working area restriction doesn't produce any persistent effect when the
document is saved.
Note that the C<get_size()> method itself is affected by C<set_working_area()>;
it returns the declared size, unless the real size is smaller.
You can change the working area according to your current needs. Successive
calls of C<set_working_area()> are allowed, so the working area may be enlarged
or reduced at will.
The working area restriction may be removed using C<set_working_area()>
without argument.
=head2 Read-optimization
As soon as an object is selected using any official table component selector
(such as C<get_cell()>, C<get_row()>, and so on), lpOD acts by default as if
this object could be updated or deleted, and as if something (a row, a column
or a cell) could be inserted before or after it. As a consequence, the internal
data structure of the spreadsheet may be changed, resulting in useless
processing if case of read-only access. However, lpOD allows the applications
to use tables in "read optimized" mode, so it may avoid any update preparation,
allowing better response times. To activate this mode, the user must set the
"read optimized" flag to C<TRUE> using C<read_optimize()> like that:
my $table = $doc->get_body->get_table("Sheet1");
$table->read_optimize(TRUE);
Caution: C<read_optimize()> means that you I<assume> that you will not make
updates; it doesn't I<prevent> you from updating cells, deleting rows, and so
on. So, be careful: you can corrupt the table and get very strange and
unpredictable results as soon as you make updates in read optimized mode.
This optimization option is useful for large table area scans, particularly
with very sparse tables (i.e. tables where significant cells are separated
by large empty areas). On the other hand, it's not efficient, and at worst may
increase the response time, for individual access to a cell. In addition, it's
completely useless with small tables as well as with I<dense> tables (i.e.
tables without large empty areas and without large sequences of identical
objects). So don't use it without testing. In some cases, the read-optimize
mode inhibits the column-based cell retrieval methods, while it may improve
the response times of table- and row-based retrieval methods.
Note that you can switch this mode off and restore the default behavior at
any time. You just have to recall C<read_optimize()> with C<FALSE> as argument.
Like C<set_working_area()>, C<read_optimize()> doesn't produce any persistent
effect.
However, there is a possible trap, illustrated by the next (wrong) example:
$table->read_optimize(TRUE);
$cell = $table->get_cell("Z26");
$table->read_optimize(FALSE);
$cell->set_value(1234);
In this sequence, we selected a cell while the table was in "read optimized"
mode, then we canceled this mode and executed an update. The result is not
predictable (it will be sometimes right, sometimes wrong). The general
principle is: avoid updating an object selected in read optimized mode.
However, there is an important exception: a cell that was selected in read-
optimized mode may be safely updated if (and only if) its differs from the
two neighbour cells and if it's belong to a row that differs (by at least one
cell) from the two neighbour rows. These conditions are almost always met with
tables whose one of the columns contains identifiers and each of the other
columns displays data of various types and formats.
On the other hand, the read optimize flag is useless with methods that return
values and not objects (i.e. C<get_cell_value>, C<get_cell_values>).
=head2 Compacting empty areas
Cells, rows, row groups, tables, columns and column groups own a C<clear()>
method. When the calling context is a I<table>, a I<row>, or a I<row group>,
a C<compact> boolean option, whose default is C<FALSE>, is allowed. If this
option is set to C<TRUE>, the execution of C<clear()> is faster and the
physical storage of the processed cells is compacted.
This option is recommended in spreadsheet documents only.
B<Caution>: the benefits of the C<compact> option are not effective if the
cleared area is immediately used as the target of a lot of individual cell
accesses using C<get_cell()>, knowing that in such case lpOD will have to
un-compact a lot of cells in the area. As a consequence, this option is not
recommended when C<clear()> is used to prepare a massive table update.
=head1 COPYRIGHT & LICENSE
Copyright (c) 2010 Ars Aperta, Itaapy, Pierlis, Talend.
This work was sponsored by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche
(L<http://www.agence-nationale-recherche.fr>).
lpOD is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
the terms of either:
a) the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software
Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option)
any later version.
lpOD is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with lpOD. If not, see L<http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
b) the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at
L<http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0>
=cut