CONVERT in Collabora Office: Convert Measurements with Exact Unit Symbols

=CONVERT(Number; FromUnit; ToUnit)

All three arguments are required. Number is the input measurement. FromUnit and ToUnit are supported unit symbols, supplied as quoted text or references to cells containing the symbols. The result is a number in ToUnit; keep the output unit visible in a neighboring cell or column heading.

The help lists 13 groups: area, energy, flux density, force, information, length and distance, mass and weight, power, pressure, speed, temperature, time, and volume. Conversion within a group is supported; conversion across groups is rejected. This is a measurement function, not a foreign-exchange function.

Enter the following values in A1:D4. The From and To entries are plain cell text; the formulas refer to those cells.

These reproduce the vendor’s three successful examples. Independent arithmetic checks them: −10 × 9/5 + 32 = 14; 3.5 × 1760 = 6160; and 256 × 2^30 ÷ (8 × 2^20) = 32768.

Temperature conversion includes a change of reference point. It is not generally multiplication by a single factor: a negative Celsius value can become a positive Fahrenheit value.

Decimal and binary prefixes express different multipliers. These documentation-based examples use supported bit and byte units:

The first two differ by 48576 bytes. When reconciling a device specification with a storage report, record whether the source uses decimal mega or binary mebi rather than silently treating them as synonyms. The supported symbol is byte, not an assumed abbreviation such as B.

Only units marked Yes in the vendor’s Prefix column accept prefixes. For example, m, g, bit, byte and sec support prefixes; ft, mi, C and F do not. The source documents k for 10^3, M for 10^6 and m for 10^-3. Binary ki, Mi and Gi mean 2^10, 2^20 and 2^30. The k in ki is lowercase.

Other exact distinctions matter:

• N is the symbol for newton.
• Pica and picapt identify the pica point, while pica identifies the pica.
• gal identifies the US gallon; uk_gal identifies the imperial gallon.
• m2 and m^2 are supported square-meter aliases; they are distinct from m, a length.
• The pressure symbol at is deprecated; the documented replacement is atm.

The complete Collabora unit and prefix tables are the authority for symbols beyond these examples. Do not generate a unit name by attaching an arbitrary prefix to an arbitrary symbol.

The source explicitly assigns Err:502, an invalid-argument error, when the supplied units are invalid or are not in the same group. Its negative control is:

=CONVERT(1;"dyn";"e")

Here dyn is dyne, a force, and e is erg, an energy. Both symbols exist, but they cannot be directly converted. A physical relationship requiring another input, such as distance, must be modeled separately.

When a formula fails, check capitalization, spelling, quotation marks for literal symbols, unit group and prefix support. If a result is numerically plausible but wrong, inspect the exact convention: US versus imperial volume, bits versus bytes, or decimal versus binary prefixes.

Keep a precise numeric result for later calculations. Use ROUND only when the reporting or measurement specification requires rounding; ABS can express the size of a comparison difference.

The help warns that CONVERT may not be compatible with other spreadsheet software and identifies its namespace as ORG.OPENOFFICE.CONVERT, outside the cited OpenFormula 1.3 standard. It separately identifies Glass, Humpen, Middy, Schooner and Sixpack as compatibility units outside that standard’s unit list. Their presence does not guarantee portability. Check the actual target application before exchanging a workbook that relies on special symbols or prefixes.

The exact function is documented in Collabora Office 26.04 desktop help, retrieved and reviewed on October 17, 2026. This establishes a documentation scope, not the first release that introduced the function or the last version in which it works; those versions and any retirement date remain unestablished. Collabora Online and mobile support are not inferred from desktop help, nor is behavior in another spreadsheet product.

The examples are documentation-based expectations with independent calculations. They have not been executed in Collabora Office. No application screenshot or native error/coercion certification is implied. Formulas use English function names and semicolon argument separators.

• Collabora Office 26.04: CONVERT (checked October 17, 2026).
• Editorial testing standards.