Preserve Single Quote Prefix of Cell Value or Range

Possible Usage Scenarios

When you put some value inside the cell that has leading apostrophe or single quote mark, then Microsoft Excel hides it, but when you select the cell, it displays the leading apostrophe or single quote in a formula bar as shown in the following screenshot.

Aspose.Cells also hides the leading apostrophe or single quote like Microsoft Excel but it sets the Style.QuotePrefix as true for that cell. If you set an empty style of the cell, then Style.QuotePrefix becomes false again. In order to deal with this issue, Aspose.Cells provides StyleFlag.QuotePrefix property, when it is set false, then Style.QuotePrefix is not updated at all and its old value is preserved. It means if the old value of Style.QuotePrefix property was true, it will remain true and if the old value was false, it will remain false.

Preserve Single Quote Prefix of Cell Value or Range

The following sample code explains the usage of StyleFlag.QuotePrefix property as described previously. Please read the comments inside the code and see the console output of the code given below for more help.

Sample Code

// For complete examples and data files, please go to https://github.com/aspose-cells/Aspose.Cells-for-.NET

//Create workbook
Workbook wb = new Workbook();

//Access first worksheet
Worksheet ws = wb.Worksheets[0];

//Access cell A1
Cell cell = ws.Cells["A1"];

//Put some text in cell, it does not have Single Quote at the beginning
cell.PutValue("Text");

//Access style of cell A1
Style st = cell.GetStyle();

//Print the value of Style.QuotePrefix of cell A1
Console.WriteLine("Quote Prefix of Cell A1: " + st.QuotePrefix);

//Put some text in cell, it has Single Quote at the beginning
cell.PutValue("'Text");

//Access style of cell A1
st = cell.GetStyle();

//Print the value of Style.QuotePrefix of cell A1
Console.WriteLine("Quote Prefix of Cell A1: " + st.QuotePrefix);

//Print information about StyleFlag.QuotePrefix property
Console.WriteLine();
Console.WriteLine("When StyleFlag.QuotePrefix is False, it means, do not update the value of Cell.Style.QuotePrefix.");
Console.WriteLine("Similarly, when StyleFlag.QuotePrefix is True, it means, update the value of Cell.Style.QuotePrefix.");
Console.WriteLine();

//Create an empty style
st = wb.CreateStyle();

//Create style flag - set StyleFlag.QuotePrefix as false
//It means, we do not want to update the Style.QuotePrefix property of cell A1's style.
StyleFlag flag = new StyleFlag();
flag.QuotePrefix = false;

//Create a range consisting of single cell A1
Range rng = ws.Cells.CreateRange("A1");

//Apply the style to the range
rng.ApplyStyle(st, flag);

//Access the style of cell A1
st = cell.GetStyle();

//Print the value of Style.QuotePrefix of cell A1
//It will print True, because we have not updated the Style.QuotePrefix property of cell A1's style.
Console.WriteLine("Quote Prefix of Cell A1: " + st.QuotePrefix);

//Create an empty style
st = wb.CreateStyle();

//Create style flag - set StyleFlag.QuotePrefix as true
//It means, we want to update the Style.QuotePrefix property of cell A1's style.
flag = new StyleFlag();
flag.QuotePrefix = true;

//Apply the style to the range
rng.ApplyStyle(st, flag);

//Access the style of cell A1
st = cell.GetStyle();

//Print the value of Style.QuotePrefix of cell A1
//It will print False, because we have updated the Style.QuotePrefix property of cell A1's style.
Console.WriteLine("Quote Prefix of Cell A1: " + st.QuotePrefix);

Console Output

Quote Prefix of Cell A1: False

Quote Prefix of Cell A1: True

When StyleFlag.QuotePrefix is False, it means, do not update the value of Cell.Style.QuotePrefix.

Similarly, when StyleFlag.QuotePrefix is True, it means, update the value of Cell.Style.QuotePrefix.

Quote Prefix of Cell A1: True

Quote Prefix of Cell A1: False