AREAS Function (OpenOffice Calc)

• Introduced: First release not established; documented by OpenOffice.org 3.3.
• Supported in: Apache OpenOffice 4.1.16; no final supported release is established.
• Scope: English desktop Calc, semicolon-separated formulas and local workbook references.
• Checked: October 14, 2026. Eight examples were recalculated in 4.1.16 on Linux x86-64, Build9816. Generated-ODF identities, saved results and controls were checked; no manual-entry or different-release test is claimed.

AREAS counts the individual reference areas in its argument. A rectangular range counts as one area regardless of its size or how many cells contain data. A union can contain several areas. This is a structural count of references, not a count of numbers, nonblank cells or worksheet tabs. Release implementation.

AREAS(Reference)

Reference is one cell, a range or a multiple-area reference. The tested union operator is ~; the examples enclose a union in parentheses before passing it to AREAS. It is not a quoted address string.

Create three local sheets named Reference, Inputs and Archive, in that order, and place the formulas on Reference. H4 is a genuinely empty cell. No values need to be entered in the cited areas for AREAS to count them.

All eight formulas were recalculated. Quotation marks identify text results; unquoted #N/A identifies an error. Logical tests in the explicitly number-formatted output cells are shown as 1/0. Reference expectations follow the inspected callback, workbook structure and ordinary arithmetic.

Suppose one report uses H2:H3 and a separate block J2:J3. =AREAS((H2:H3~J2:J3)) returns 2, while =AREAS(H2:J8) returns 1. The latter rectangle contains 21 cell positions, but it is still a single area. Use a cell-counting function when your question concerns entries or dimensions rather than the reference’s composition.

The empty-cell case matters when validating a selection: =AREAS(H4) returns 1 even though H4 is empty. An area count does not prove the selected range contains usable data.

The inspected callback treats a single-cell reference and a rectangular range as one area; a reference list contributes its number of entries. The three disjoint cells in =AREAS((H2~J2~L2)) therefore yield 3.

A three-dimensional range has another distinction. =AREAS(Inputs.A1:Archive.A1) returned 1 even though that contiguous range spans two sheets. AREAS counts the reference area; SHEETS counts the sheet span. Keep those questions separate when checking a consolidation formula.

The examples establish the supplied disjoint unions and contiguous three-dimensional reference. They do not establish a general deduplication policy for overlapping or repeated reference lists.

The source requires exactly one argument and checks that its value is a reference or reference list. Do not pass several separate function arguments when you intend one union. Likewise, text such as "H2:H3" is text until another operation constructs a reference.

External workbook references, broken references and overlapping-area normalization were not executed. Sheet insertion or structural edits can change a reference’s extent; an unchanged AREAS result alone is not a complete workbook-integrity check.

ROWS, COLUMNS, SHEETS.

• Function-specific implementation
• Release function description and argument metadata
• English function identity
• Reference-union construction

The generated ODF was opened in the native GUI, hard-recalculated and saved separately. The informational “Not all attributes could be read” load warning was retained. A deliberately stale SUM cache refreshed to 3, and an uncached SUM returned 7. The exact local inputs, sheet order, formula identities and saved values were reconciled. The authoring-tool XLSX and its previews were not used as native calculation evidence. Only the listed cases and release are covered.