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[Dropped] Hidden characters when merging cells

Posted: Fri Feb 07, 2025 10:21 am
by cjtheme
Hi,

I got a spreadsheet with a colum with multiple rows refering to webadressess.

Like a cell with:

Code: Select all

https://testdomein.com/wp-content/uploads/table-top-bottom.jpg
When I export it to a csv-file and load it into a Wordpress website, the - is replaced by %00-%00:

Code: Select all

https://testdomein.com/wp-content/uploads/%00table%00-%00top%00-%00bottom%00.jpg
Does anyone know how this can be solved?

Re: Hidden characters when merging cells

Posted: Fri Feb 07, 2025 11:03 am
by robleyd
Is the extraneous text in the csv file before you upload it? If not, the Wordpress site is likely trying to encode the URLs and making a mess of it.

Re: Hidden characters when merging cells

Posted: Fri Feb 07, 2025 12:13 pm
by cjtheme
The characters are already there but invisible. When I copy the text from the cell into a browser the characters are showing up.

Re: Hidden characters when merging cells

Posted: Fri Feb 07, 2025 12:19 pm
by robleyd
Can you upload a minimal sample file that shows this behaviour?

Re: Hidden characters when merging cells

Posted: Fri Feb 07, 2025 12:47 pm
by cjtheme
Hi - tnx - see attached.

https://easyupload.io/fvbjmo
 Edit: Added the actual file here for future generations to enjoy as the external URL will self destruct in a few days [robleyd, mod 
testdoc.csv
(46 Bytes) Downloaded 85 times

Re: Hidden characters when merging cells

Posted: Fri Feb 07, 2025 2:24 pm
by robleyd
What I see is a 46 byte file containing 45 characters;

https://testdomein.online/wp-content/uploads/

and a closing new line character - there are no hidden or invisible characters aside from the new line character. Screen shot of the file viewed in a hex viewer;
z2.png
z2.png (20.46 KiB) Viewed 4999 times
If I open that file in Calc, copy and paste the URL into my browser, I get this, as I would expect.:
z.png
z.png (22.61 KiB) Viewed 4999 times
I can't duplicate what you describe with the setup I have. I would suspect the problem is not with OpenOffice however.

Re: Hidden characters when merging cells

Posted: Fri Feb 07, 2025 4:35 pm
by MrProgrammer
cjtheme wrote: Fri Feb 07, 2025 10:21 am Hidden characters when merging cells
I see nothing in your posts about merged cells. CSV files do not have cells so they can't have merged cells.

cjtheme wrote: Fri Feb 07, 2025 10:21 am

Code: Select all

https://testdomein.com/wp-content/uploads/table-top-bottom.jpg
The 63-byte URL above doesn't match the 45-byte data you uploaded (46 bytes when NewLine is included). I don't understand why you uploaded that when the problem is with the URL which contains table-top-bottom.jpg. Your attachment doesn't demonstrate the problem!

1234567 101234567 201234567 301234567 40123456 501234567 60123
https://testdomein.com/wp-content/uploads/table-top-bottom.jpg

1234567 101234567 201234567 301234567 40123456
https://testdomein.online/wp-content/uploads/␤

Damned easyupload.io is the worst file-sharing website I've ever encountered. All I could see was a bunch of ads. I couldn't find a way to download your actual file. Congratulations to robleyd for finding the hidden link. I will ignore all future easyupload.io links that anyone provides. They are a waste of my time. And there is absolutely no need for using the website here when it is much better to just attach the tiny 63-byte file to the forum and avoid another layer of complexity which may be hiding the problem.

robleyd wrote: Fri Feb 07, 2025 2:24 pm I would suspect the problem is not with OpenOffice however.
Since the file you provided in easyupload.io doesn't contain %00 characters, I agree that this seems likely to be a problem with Wordpress or with your transfer process, not with OpenOffice. I'm done helping in this topic unless you attach a spreadsheet file demonstrating the situation so I can try a CSV export myself (remove confidential information then use Post Reply, not Quick Reply, and don't attach a picture instead of the document itself). I will not help further unless you attach without using easyupload.io. %00 is the NUL character. I can check your spreadsheet to see if it occurs in a cell. A valid URL would not normally contain a NUL character. If your URLs do, they are probably in error. You can remove NUL characters with the CLEAN() function.

It seems unlikely that a file name which appears as table-top-bottom.jpg actually contains six non-displayable NUL characters. Depending on your software and your disk configuration, NUL may be invalid as a character in a MacOS file name. You'd need to check with Apple to find out it it's allowed in file names on your MacOS system. Even if it were valid, many other systems like Windows or Linux may not allow it, thus it would be a very bad choice for a character in a file name because NUL will cause trouble when transferring the file to other systems on the internet.

robleyd wrote: Fri Feb 07, 2025 2:24 pm What I see is a 46 byte file containing 45 characters;
easyupload.io even says the upload was 46 bytes, so that doesn't match the 63-byte URL in the first post. The file length was the only useful information I could find on the page.
202502070857.gif
202502070857.gif (15.86 KiB) Viewed 4927 times

Re: Hidden characters when merging cells

Posted: Sat Feb 08, 2025 12:01 am
by robleyd
MrProgrammer wrote:Damned easyupload.io is the worst upload website I've ever seen. All I could see was a bunch of ads. I couldn't find a way to download your actual file. Congratulations to robleyd for finding the hidden link
All credit goes to the adblocker extension I use with Waterfox browser, Ublock Origin. It tells me it blocked 22 ads on that page.