.ODT File Format – Tables

Table elements

A table:table can stand in the text body, a section, a header or footer, a frame or text box, a note, an index body, a deleted-text record, or inside another table’s cell. Its children come in this order: optional title and description, optional link source, scenario, forms, shapes and named expressions, then the columns, then the rows.

A table may have only one table:table-header-rows, unless it has row groups: then the table and each group may have one, as long as all the header rows are next to each other. The same rule applies to header columns and column groups. A column group may contain header columns, but not the other way round.

Repeats, spans and covered cells

Adjacent columns with the same style may be written once with table:number-columns-repeated. Adjacent rows with the same content and style, and no vertically merged cells, may be written once with table:number-rows-repeated. Adjacent cells with the same content and style that are not merged may be written once with table:number-columns-repeated. All three default to 1.

A merged cell is a table:table-cell with table:number-columns-spanned and/or table:number-rows-spanned greater than 1 (both default to 1). Every grid position it covers must still be present as a table:covered-table-cell, so each row always has the full number of cell elements.

<table:table table:name="Table1" table:style-name="Table1">
 <table:table-column table:style-name="Table1.A" table:number-columns-repeated="3"/>
 <table:table-header-rows>
  <table:table-row>
   <table:table-cell table:number-columns-spanned="2" office:value-type="string">
    <text:p>Name</text:p></table:table-cell>
   <table:covered-table-cell/>
   <table:table-cell office:value-type="string"><text:p>Total</text:p></table:table-cell>
  </table:table-row>
 </table:table-header-rows>
 <table:table-row>
  <table:table-cell office:value-type="float" office:value="2"><text:p>2</text:p></table:table-cell>
  <table:table-cell office:value-type="float" office:value="3"><text:p>3</text:p></table:table-cell>
  <table:table-cell office:value-type="percentage" office:value="0.50"><text:p>50%</text:p></table:table-cell>
 </table:table-row>
</table:table>

Cells

When a row and a column both give a default cell style, the row’s wins.

Table, column and row attributes

Cell addresses

Formulas, print ranges and other attributes refer to cells by address:

• A cell address is the table name, a dot, the column letters and the row number: Table1.B3. Column A is 1, B is 2, Z is 26, AA is 27, AB is 28; row 1 is the first row.
• A cell in a subtable is the address of the cell holding the subtable, a dot, then the address inside the subtable.
• A table name containing spaces, dots or apostrophes is put in apostrophes, with any apostrophe in it doubled: 'Bob''s table'.A1.
• An absolute address puts $ before the table name, column and row: $Table1.$B$3. Absolute and relative parts may be mixed; an absolute address must include the table name. Where the difference does not matter the dollar signs may be left out.
• A cell range is two cell addresses joined by a colon, top left first: Table1.A1:Table1.C4. A single cell is also a range.
• A row range leaves out the column letters, a column range leaves out the row numbers.
• A range list is cell or range addresses separated by white space.

What a reader does with a reference to a cell that is not in the file is up to the implementation.

Linked tables, scenarios and detective marks

These come from the spreadsheet side of the model, but are allowed on any table.

Precedents are the cells a formula uses; dependents are the cells whose formulas use this one. How highlighting looks is up to the program.

Formula settings

A program that evaluates table:formula takes these host settings from the document’s calculation settings (table:calculation-settings), with these defaults:

Source

OpenDocument Version 1.3, OASIS Standard, 27 April 2021, part 3 (schema), sections 9.1 to 9.3 and the table: and office: attributes in chapter 19; read in full for this page.