duckdb / duckdb/duckdb-excel

empty_as_varchar fails to work when cell borders are present

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#77 0 comments 1 reaction 0 assignees View on GitHub
Dominant language
C++
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Forks
24
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Description

Hi,

The empty_as_varchar behaves very strangely for cells with difference formatting.

When there is empty cell present, and there no cell border, and empty_as_varchar is present, then the column type is correctly identified as VARCHAR as expected.

But when there is cell border, even though the content is empty, the column type will be identified as DOUBLE.

Here is a sample with two sheets (one with border, one without border) for reference

[reproduce.xlsx](https://github.com/user-attachments/files/24326832/reproduce.xlsx)

Image

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Contributor guide

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Research direction

Start by running the Excel import against reproduce.xlsx with empty_as_varchar enabled, comparing the bordered and unbordered sheets described in the issue. Trace the type-inference path for empty cells and verify that both cases identify the column as VARCHAR, adding a regression test if the relevant test location can be found.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
cpp
Domain
databases
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
48/100

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