SQRT in Collabora Office: Square Roots, Distances and Positive-Domain Checks

• Introduced: documented by Collabora Office 26.04; the original introduction release is not established.
• Availability: SQRT is documented in the official 26.04 Calc Help.
• Scope: desktop Calc documentation; separately deployed Online and mobile versions have not been verified.
• Checked: October 13, 2026, against the official SQRT reference. Documentation check; not a native application test. Expected examples are independently calculated.

=SQRT(number)

The official Collabora reference describes the positive square root and gives a negative-input example as an invalid-argument error. This guide’s worked inputs are strictly positive. It does not use a negative input to request a complex-valued answer.

A square root is not division by two. The square root of 49 is the number whose square is 49, namely 7; 49/2 is 24.5 and answers a different question.

Enter 49, 2.25, 100 and 2 in A2:A5. In B2 enter =SQRT(A2) and fill down.

For the first three rows, squaring the expected result recovers the input exactly in ordinary arithmetic. The last row is irrational, so a decimal display is necessarily approximate.

A square floor has area 72.25 square metres in D2. Calculate:

=SQRT(D2)

Expected result: 8.5 metres. Taking a square root changes square units back to linear units. If D2 is stored in square centimetres, the returned unit is centimetres; the function does not perform a hidden unit conversion.

A negative recorded area is an input-validation problem. Do not apply ABS to make it positive unless that transformation is explicitly correct for the source data.

Put a horizontal difference of 6 in F2 and a vertical difference of 8 in G2.

=SQRT(F2^2+G2^2)

Expected result: 10. The squared components sum to 100. This is the Pythagorean distance for perpendicular coordinate axes with the same scale and unit.

Changing F2 to -6 leaves the distance at 10 because the sign disappears when the component is squared. That is appropriate for length, but not for a signed direction or net movement along one axis.

Enter -3, 3, -3 and 3 in J2:J5. A root-mean-square calculation is:

=SQRT(SUMSQ(J2:J5)/COUNT(J2:J5))

Expected result: 3. The squares sum to 36, the numeric count is four, and the square root of 9 is 3. The ordinary arithmetic mean is zero, demonstrating that RMS and an average answer different questions.

This formula assumes the range contains the intended numeric observations and at least one of them. Do not use the row count as the denominator if some rows are not actual measurements. See COUNT and SUMSQ for the separate components.

The official reference’s negative-input example is an invalid argument. If a value that should be nonnegative becomes slightly negative after several calculations, investigate the algebra, source precision and subtraction before changing SQRT.

Silently replacing every negative value with zero can disguise a genuinely impossible input. A deliberate tolerance-based policy may be appropriate in a numerical model, but the model must define that policy; it is not a universal property of SQRT.

SQRT(49) gives 7. The equation x squared equals 49 has two real solutions, 7 and -7. A worksheet function returning the positive root does not automatically choose a sign for a separate physical or business problem.

Similarly, using a fractional power is not permission to assume another application’s handling of negative bases. Keep real square roots, signed equation solutions and complex roots as distinct tasks.

Check the stored input, units and intermediate sum of squares. A cell format affects presentation, not the underlying domain. Numeric-looking text or an error in an upstream formula should be corrected at the source.

When validating a noninteger result, compare rounded values or a justified tolerance. Do not demand an exact text match to every displayed decimal. The independent expected values above are not native Collabora observations; record the installed build and locale for a reproducible application test.

• Collabora Office 26.04: SQRT, checked October 13, 2026.
• Editorial standards.