OCT2DEC in Collabora Office: Decode Octal Fields with the Correct Positional Weights

• Introduced: the original Collabora release and launch date are not established by the reviewed sources.
• Availability: documented in Collabora Office 26.04 desktop help.
• Platform scope: online and mobile deployment support is not inferred from the desktop documentation.
• Checked: October 14, 2026. Function-specific documentation and independent controls; no native Collabora execution.

=OCT2DEC(Number)

Number is an octal string with at most ten characters. Valid octal digits are 0–7. The source specifies a sign bit and two’s-complement notation for negative input.

Each octal digit corresponds to three binary bits, so ten octal characters span thirty bits. A short positive code and a full-width negative code must not be interpreted using the same informal “first digit means minus” rule.

Use quoted strings or Text-formatted input cells. An ordinary decimal number whose display happens to contain the same digits is a different quantity until those digits are explicitly interpreted in base eight.

Format A2:A7 as Text, enter these strings and put =OCT2DEC(A2) in B2, filling down.

For 263, the calculation is 2×64+6×8+3=179. For 526, it is 5×64+2×8+6=342. The initial zero in 052 preserves width but contributes no value.

The source string 010 therefore decodes to 8, not 10. Retaining both the original and decoded columns makes this distinction inspectable during an import review.

A record specification requires exactly three octal characters. Put 052, 144 and 526 as text in E2:E4. In F2 use:

=VALUE(LEFT(E2;1))*64+VALUE(MID(E2;2;1))*8+VALUE(RIGHT(E2;1))

Fill down. Expected outputs are 42, 100 and 342, matching =OCT2DEC(E2) filled down beside them. VALUE converts the individual decimal digit characters for arithmetic; each is restricted to 0–7 in this fixture.

This expression is a check for the declared three-character layout, not a general replacement for OCT2DEC. A four-character input needs different positional handling, and an invalid digit remains invalid even if VALUE can parse it as a decimal number.

The independent two’s-complement model subtracts 2^30, or 1073741824, when the highest bit is set in a full ten-character input.

These are consequences of the documented encoding, not observed native boundary tests. At full width, an initial octal digit 4–7 sets the highest bit. The largest positive model starts with 3, whose three binary bits are 011; the smallest negative starts with 4, or 100.

A short 777 remains positive 511. Applying a signed-width convention from a different file format would change the interpretation and must be handled separately.

Suppose a three-digit record 526 represents three independent one-digit fields. Their values are 5, 2 and 6. The complete positional number is 342, while the sum of the fields is 13.

Neither result replaces the external specification. OCT2DEC decodes the whole representation; LEFT, MID and RIGHT can extract declared fields when those are what the application needs.

For a reverse check, =DEC2OCT(342;3) has expected text 526. With =DEC2OCT(42;3), the expected text is 052, showing why explicit width matters when reconstructing a record.

Digits 8 or 9 are outside octal notation, and more than ten characters exceeds the stated input contract. The sparse Collabora section does not provide a complete exact error-code table, so this guide does not assign another spreadsheet’s native errors to those cases.

Whitespace, prefixes, blank-reference coercion and error precedence remain unverified. Preserve source strings, their intended signed width and their numeric outputs together. DEC2OCT handles the reverse representation under its own documented scope.

• Collabora Office 26.04: OCT2DEC.
• Editorial testing standards.

Complete function-specific documentation reviewed. Outputs are independently calculated positional models or explicitly documented controls, not captured native application results. Formulas use English names and semicolon separators; optional-argument brackets describe syntax and are not typed into a working formula.