columnIndexFromString and stringFromColumnIndex are not compatible

[lorenzulrich]

From reading their names, I would assume that the functions mentioned above would be doing the same operation, but reversed. But they don't.

echo(PHPExcel_Cell:columnIndexFromString('A'));
// result: 1
echo(PHPExcel_Cell:stringFromColumnIndex(1);
// result: 2, expected: 1

Since I'm surely not the first to find this out: Are there any reasons for that behaviour?

[MarkBaker]

Bad decision many years ago in history that now needs to be maintained for backward compatibility

[santarinto]

maybe add second parameter to stringFromColumnIndex function, example stringFromColumnIndex($pColumnIndex = 0, $isBaseColIndexIsOne = false)

[joe15000]

stringFromColumnIndex is working correctly.
columnIndexFromString is working incorrectly.

As written elsewhere in PHPExcel, columns start at 0, rows at 1.

So
stringFromColumnIndex(0) = 'A' (expected 'A', correct)
columnIndexFromString('A') = 1 (expected 0, incorrect)

If you don't know this and did not stumble across it in this bug report, the only way you have to find this out is by debugging it (this took me about 30 minutes to find out as this function was used as part of a larger loop and drove me nuts as it should have worked but didn't until I added "-1" to the end of it)

Maybe to add a flag to columnIndexFromString for base 1 (default for legacy) or base 0?

[PowerKiKi]

@joe15000 would you be interested in submitting a PR against PhpSpreadsheet that would break BC and change the behavior (without extra flags) ?