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saveWorkbook() always returns TRUE #71

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rmanfredi opened this issue May 9, 2020 · 3 comments
Closed

saveWorkbook() always returns TRUE #71

rmanfredi opened this issue May 9, 2020 · 3 comments
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enhancement New feature or request

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@rmanfredi
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The saveWorkbook() routine always returns TRUE. Its return status is not documented, and rightfully so since it is constant!

However, on Windows platforms (precisely where openxlsx is likely to be used....), if you happen to have the targeted file opened in Excel, the write operation will fail!!

It would be useful for saveWorkbook() to at least return a boolean "success status" and yield FALSE when saving fails. Another option would be to add an argument (FALSE by default, to not overcomplicate the logic for those who do not care much) to trigger an exception when writing fails.
@ycphs ycphs added the enhancement New feature or request label May 19, 2020
@ycphs
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ycphs commented May 19, 2020

Thank you for your input. It would definitely make sense to have a return value.

I thought of two possible ways:

  1. as described by you
  2. return a more comprehensive error message to get easier to the root of the problem.

What's your opinion?

@rmanfredi
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I would say it all depends on the "API level" of the saveWorkbook() routine in your mind.

If it is, as I view it from here, a rather low-level API call, then the behaviour I described would be what would be called for. It's annoying for low-level calls which return a success status to decide to emit an error message which might not be suitable: let the caller decide what to do, perhaps there is a contigency plan to retry saving with an alternate name, for instance.

In that case (low-level routine made available to users), all high-level API calls which rely on saveWorkbook() must be taught to handle the error status accordingly. Factorizing the exception generation at the lowest level was precisely what I was thinking about when I suggested adding this extra parameter...

If it is a user-visible front API, then yes, a detailed user message describing the problem is probably called for because the user would expect the routine to succeed, so it would be an exception if it does not fulfill its contract. Then internal calls you may be making to saveWorkbook() do not need to change.

It's a design decision. If it were my code, I would do what I initially suggested, because it's cleaner and more flexible that way.

@ycphs
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ycphs commented Aug 17, 2020

could you please check out the new pull request: #93
I would like to welcome you to review mine PR. Please provide also PRs, if you miss some features.

ycphs added a commit that referenced this issue Sep 14, 2020
@ycphs
Merge pull request #93 from ycphs/returnValueSaveWorkbook
1173d8e 
added feature returnValue for saveWorkbokk #71
@ycphs ycphs closed this as completed Sep 17, 2020
@JMPivette JMPivette mentioned this issue Apr 15, 2021
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netbsd-srcmastr pushed a commit to NetBSD/pkgsrc that referenced this issue Sep 8, 2021
(textproc/R-openxlsx) Updated 4.1.0.1 to 4.2.4, make test passes
3873ef3 
# development  openxlsx 4.2.4

## Fixes

* `Write.xlsx()` now successfully passes `withFilter`
  ([#151](ycphs/openxlsx#151))
* code clean up PR [#168](ycphs/openxlsx#168)
* removal of unused variables PR
  [#168](ycphs/openxlsx#168)

## New features

* adds `buildWorkbook()` to generate a `Workbook` object from a
  (named) list or a data.frame
  ([#192](ycphs/openxlsx#192),
  [#187](ycphs/openxlsx#187))
  * this is now recommended rather than the `write.xlsx(x, file) ; wb
    <- read.xlsx(file)` functionality before
  * `write.xlsx()` is now a wrapper for `wb <- buildWorkbook(x);
    saveWorkbook(x, file)`
  * parameter checking from `write.xlsx()` >> `buildWorkbook()` are
    now held off until passed to `writeData()`, `writeDataTable()`,
    etc
  * `row.names` is now deprecated for `writeData()` and
    `writeDataTable()`; please use `rowNames` instead
* `read.xlsx()` now checks for the file extension `.xlsx`; previously
  it would throw an error when the file was `.xls` or `.xlm` files

* memory allocation improvements
* global options added for `minWidth` and `maxWidth`

* `write.xlsx()` >> `buildWorkbook()` can now handle `colWidths`
  passed as either a single element or a `list()`

* Added ability to change positioning of summary columns and rows.
  * These can be set with the `summaryCol` and `summaryRow` arguments
    in `pageSetup()`.

* `activeSheet` allows to set and get the active (displayed) sheet of a worbook.

* Adds new global options for workbook formatting
  ([#165](ycphs/openxlsx#165); see
  `?op.openxlsx`)


# openxlsx 4.2.3

## New Features

* Most of functions in openxlsx now support non-ASCII arguments
  better. More specifically, we can use non-ASCII strings as names or
  contents for `createNamedRegion()`
  ([#103](ycphs/openxlsx#103)),
  `writeComment()`, `writeData()`, `writeDataTable()` and
  `writeFormula()`. In addition, openxlsx now reads comments and
  region names that contain non-ASCII strings correctly on
  Windows. Thanks to @shrektan for the PR
  [#118](ycphs/openxlsx#118).

* `setColWidths()` now supports zero-length `cols`, which is
  convinient when `cols` is dynamically provided
  [#128](ycphs/openxlsx#128). Thanks to
  @shrektan for the feature request and the PR.

## Fixes for Check issues

* Fix to pass the tests for link-time optimization type mismatches

* Fix to pass the checks of native code (C/C++) based on static code
  analysis

## Bug Fixes

* Grouping columns after setting widths no longer throws an error
  ([#100](ycphs/openxlsx#100))

* Fix inability to save workbook more than once
  ([#106](ycphs/openxlsx#106))

* Fix `loadWorkbook()` sometimes importing incorrect column attributes

# openxlsx 4.2.2

## New Features

* Added features for `conditionalFormatting` to support also 'contains
  not', 'begins with' and 'ends with'

* Added return value for `saveWorkbook()` the default value for
  `returnValue` is `FALSE`
  ([#71](ycphs/openxlsx#71))

* Added Tests for new parameter of `saveWorkbook()`

## Bug Fixes

* Solved CRAN check errors based on the change disussed in
  [PR#17277](https://bugs.r-project.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=17277)

# openxlsx 4.2.0

## New Features

* Added `groupColumns()`, `groupRows()`, `ungroupColumns()`, and
  `ungroupRows()` to group/ugroup columns/rows
  ([#32](ycphs/openxlsx#32))

## Bug Fixes

* Allow xml-sensitve characters in sheetnames
  ([#78](ycphs/openxlsx#78))

## Internal

* Updated roxygen2 to 7.1.1

# openxlsx 4.1.5.1

## Bug Fixes

*  fixed issue [#68](ycphs/openxlsx#68])

# openxlsx 4.1.5

## New Features

*  Add functions to get and set the creator of the xlsx file

*  add function to set the name of the user who last modified the xlsx file

## Bug Fixes

*  Fixed NEWS hyperlink

*  Fixed writing of mixed EST/EDT datetimes

* Added description for `writeFormula()` to use only english function
   names

*  Fixed validateSheet for special characters

## Internal

*  applied the tidyverse-style to the package `styler::style_pkg()`

*  include tests for `cloneWorksheet`

# openxlsx 4.1.4

## New Features

* Added `getCellRefs()` as
   function. [#7](ycphs/openxlsx#7)

*  Added parameter for customizing na.strings

## Bug Fixes

*  Use `zip::zipr()` instead of `zip::zip()`.

* Keep correct visibility option for
   loadWorkbook. [#12](ycphs/openxlsx#12])

* Add space surrounding "wrapText"
   [#17](ycphs/openxlsx#17)

* Corrected Percentage, Accounting, Comma, Currency class on column
   level


*  update to rogygen2 7.0.0

# openxlsx 4.1.3

## New Features

*  Added a `NEWS.md` file to track changes to the package.
*  Added `pkgdown` to create site.

## Bug Fixes

*  Return values for cpp changed to R_NilValue for r-devel tests

*  Added empty lines at the end of files

# openxlsx 4.1.2

*  Changed maintainer

# openxlsx 4.1.1

## New Features

* `sep.names` allows choose other separator than '.' for variable
   names with a blank inside

* Improve handling of non-region names in `getNamedRegions` and add
   related test
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