INFO Function (OpenOffice Calc)

• Introduced: First release and earliest historical documentation not established; registration is verified in 4.1.16.
• Supported in: Registered and implemented in Apache OpenOffice 4.1.16. No retirement is established.
• Scope: Desktop Calc with English semicolon-separated formulas. The described behavior is tied to the inspected version.
• Checked: October 14, 2026. Function-specific source and documentation were inspected. No environment values were collected. No native example is claimed.

INFO selects a small item of application or environment information by a text keyword. The function name sounds broader than the implementation: some values come from application state, one comes from build metadata, and two are fixed constants. The distinctions matter if you are building a workbook information panel.

INFO(Text)

Text is the single required keyword. The inspected implementation translates the keyword using the document locale before comparing five recognized internal names. The English spellings are shown here. Exact translations and case handling were not independently tested. Versioned argument description.

These examples explain the inspected code and documented contract. They were not executed. Constants are distinguished from values that depend on other application data.

Suppose a workbook has an information area with fields for release, calculation mode and file count. The inspected INFO implementation can supply the first two through its stated sources, but the apparent file count is always the constant 1. Labeling that field Open workbooks would be misleading.

Likewise, do not use OSVERSION to choose between Windows and Linux instructions. A hard-coded string is not an operating-system probe. If a workflow depends on the real platform, verify it using the application’s own information interface or another separately established source.

For a calculation-mode note, INFO(“recalc”) selects the localized automatic or manual label according to the document setting. Comparing that text to a hard-coded English word can be fragile in another locale. This guide does not claim that the formula itself changes calculation mode or forces a recalculation.

The callback first reads one string and passes it through a keyword translator. It then follows a simple ordered set of comparisons: SYSTEM, OSVERSION, RELEASE, NUMFILE and RECALC. An unrecognized translated keyword uses the illegal-argument branch. Extra keyword names from a different spreadsheet program should not be assumed to work.

RELEASE calls the bootstrap build-identification accessor. The retained callback does not show how every distribution populates that field, so the output should not be parsed as a guaranteed major.minor.patch version without further verification. An empty or vendor-specific build string would need its own investigation.

SYSTEM is a compile-time macro rather than a runtime operating-system query in this callback. Because the macro definition was not included in the inspected evidence, the table deliberately gives the source contract instead of inventing the resulting text for Linux, Windows or macOS.

The two constants are stronger findings: the exact literal OSVERSION string and numeric NUMFILE value are visible directly in the versioned code. They are source findings for 4.1.16, not observations collected from a running user environment. Inspected callback.

INFO accepts exactly one argument. Unknown keywords follow an error path in the source; no native error display was captured here. Do not confuse source inspection with an executed test or infer the same constants in every earlier or future release.

The reviewed examples were not run and reveal no actual machine information. The availability statement establishes registration and an inspected implementation, not reliability as a system inventory tool. When an information field is used to make a decision, verify that the field measures what its label claims.

SHEET and SHEETS count worksheet structure; they are not substitutes for counting open document windows. CELL inspects selected cell properties and likewise has a different purpose.

CELL, SHEET, SHEETS.

• Complete 4.1.16 function implementation
• English native-name registration
• Function description and arguments

The review covers the documented syntax and exact retained 4.1.16 implementation. No actual system or release string was queried; hard-coded values are source findings.