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_liste
d_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.
Mathematical functions
Table 34: Mathematical functions
Syntax Description
ABS(number)
Returns the absolute value of the given number.
ACOS(number)
Returns the inverse cosine of the given number in
radians.
ACOSH(number) Returns the inverse hyperbolic cosine of the given
number in radians.
376 OpenOffice.org 3.3 Calc Guide