Feature request: allow cell errors to be ignored

I need to produce a spreadsheet where cells contain long numerical strings, representing object IDs.

If a value is added to the cell as an int, precision is lost and the value is shown with scientific notation. Eg 12345678901234567890 is stored as 12345678901234500000 and is rendered as 1.23457E+19.

If a value is added to the cell as a str, then we avoid the precision problems, but Excel displays a warning about a number being stored as text.

My current workaround is to hack Worksheet._assemble_xml_file so that it adds XML like the following:

  <ignoredErrors>
    <ignoredError sqref="A:A" numberStoredAsText="1"/>
    <ignoredError sqref="D:D" numberStoredAsText="1"/>
  </ignoredErrors>

[jmcnamara]

Just to let you know that I am working on this feature and it will be in the next release.

[inglesp]

@Hugovdberg I have a function called monkey_path_worksheet:

def monkey_patch_worksheet(ws):
    _old_write_page_margins = ws._write_page_margins

    def _write_page_margins_and_other_stuff(self):
        _old_write_page_margins()

        self._xml_start_tag("ignoredErrors")

        for col in self.ignore_error_cols:
            col_name = xlsxwriter.utility.xl_col_to_name(col)

            attributes = [
                ("sqref", f"{col_name}:{col_name}"),
                ("numberStoredAsText", "1"),
            ]
            self._xml_empty_tag("ignoredError", attributes)
        self._write_sheet_view()
        self._xml_end_tag("ignoredErrors")

    ws._write_page_margins = types.MethodType(_write_page_margins_and_other_stuff, ws)

This changes the _write_page_margins method on the worksheet class so that it also adds the ignoredErrors element.

I use it like this:

ws = wb.add_worksheet(tab_name)
monkey_patch_worksheet(ws)
ws.ignore_error_cols = [1, 2, 3]  # change this to match your needs!

Does that help?