LibreOffice Calc / OpenOffice Calc: How to filter rows based on their background color?

Question

I'd like to filter out rows with a specific color on a specific column. I tried to search nearly everywhere but couldn't find my answer. Hope for some good advice, thanks.

Answer 1

AFAIK, currently, there's no built-in function that allows for selecting cells based on their format. But in this OOo forum thread, you'll find a macro that creates some user-defined functions, among them CELL_BACKCOLOR.

You can use it as follows:

=CELL_BACKCOLOR(SHEET(); ROW(); 1)

This will return the numerical value of the background color of the current sheet / current row's cell in the first column. To do some filtering based on the background, just nest the formula into your filter criteria. Note that in my example, the column vaule is static; the row is addressed dynamically.

Here's a visual example, displaying the numerical color values of column A's cells in column B (note that i'm using , as argument separator in the formula because of a non-US localisation):

EDIT

Here's the code from the linked posting (tribute to user villeroy of the OOo forum who wrote the macro code)

REM  *****  BASIC  *****
REM ################### RETURNING STRING   #################################################
Function CELL_NOTE(vSheet,lRowIndex&,iColIndex%)
'calls: getSheetCell
REM returns annotation text
Dim v
   v = getSheetCell(vSheet,lRowIndex&,iColIndex%)
   if vartype(v) = 9 then
      CELL_NOTE = v.Annotation.getText.getString
   else
      CELL_NOTE = v
   endif
End Function
Function CELL_URL(vSheet,lRowIndex&,iColIndex%,optional n%)
'calls: getSheetCell
REM returns URL of Nth text-hyperlink from a cell, default N=1)
Dim v
   If isMissing(n) then n= 1
   If n < 1 then
      CELL_URL = Null
      exit function
   endif
   v = getSheetCell(vSheet,lRowIndex&,iColIndex%)
   if vartype(v) = 9 then
      if v.Textfields.Count >= n  then
         CELL_URL = v.getTextfields.getByIndex(n -1).URL
      else
         Cell_URL = Null
      endif
   else
      CELL_URL = v
   endif
End Function
Function CELL_FORMULA(vSheet,lRowIndex&,iColIndex%)
'calls: getSheetCell
REM return unlocalized (English) formula
Dim v
   v = getSheetCell(vSheet,lRowIndex&,iColIndex%)
   if vartype(v) = 9 then
      CELL_FORMULA = v.getFormula()
   else
      CELL_FORMULA = v
   endif
End Function
Function CELL_STYLE(vSheet,lRowIndex&,iColIndex%,optional bLocalized)
'calls: getSheetCell
REM return name of cell-style, optionally localized
Dim v,s$,bLocal as Boolean
   if not isMissing(bLocalized) then bLocal=cBool(bLocalized)
   v = getSheetCell(vSheet,lRowIndex&,iColIndex%)
   if vartype(v) = 9 then
      if bLocal then
         s = thisComponent.StyleFamilies("CellStyles").getByName(v.CellStyle).DisplayName
      else
         s = v.CellStyle
      endif
      CELL_STYLE = s
   else
      CELL_STYLE = v
   endif
End Function
Function CELL_LINE(vSheet,lRowIndex&,iColIndex%,optional n)
'calls: getSheetCell
REM Split by line breaks, missing or zero line number returns whole string.
REM =CELL_LINE(SHEET(),1,1,2) -> second line of A1 in this sheet
Dim v,s$,a(),i%
   v = getSheetCell(vSheet,lRowIndex&,iColIndex%)
   if vartype(v) = 9 then
      s = v.getString
      if not isMissing(n) then i = cInt(n)
      if i > 0 then
         a() = Split(s,chr(10))
         If (i <= uBound(a())+1)then
            CELL_LINE = a(i -1)
         else
            CELL_LINE = NULL
         endif
      else
         CELL_LINE = s
      endif
   else
      CELL_LINE = v
   endif
end Function

REM ################### RETURNING NUMBER #################################################
Function CELL_ISHORIZONTALPAGEBREAK(vSheet,lRowIndex&,iColIndex%)
'calls: getSheetCell
Dim v
   v = getSheetCell(vSheet,lRowIndex&,iColIndex%)
   if vartype(v) = 9 then
      CELL_ISHORIZONTALPAGEBREAK = Abs(cINT(v.Rows.getByIndex(0).IsStartOfNewPage))
   else
      CELL_ISHORIZONTALPAGEBREAK = v
   endif
End Function
Function CELL_ISVERTICALPAGEBREAK(vSheet,lRowIndex&,iColIndex%)
'calls: getSheetCell
Dim v
   v = getSheetCell(vSheet,lRowIndex&,iColIndex%)
   if vartype(v) = 9 then
      CELL_ISVERTICALPAGEBREAK = Abs(cINT(v.Columns.getByIndex(0).IsStartOfNewPage))
   else
      CELL_ISVERTICALPAGEBREAK = v
   endif
End Function
Function CELL_CHARCOLOR(vSheet,lRowIndex&,iColIndex%)
'calls: getSheetCell
REM returns color code as number
Dim v
   v = getSheetCell(vSheet,lRowIndex&,iColIndex%)
   if vartype(v) = 9 then
      CELL_CHARCOLOR = v.CharColor
   else
      CELL_CHARCOLOR = v
   endif
End Function
Function CELL_BACKCOLOR(vSheet,lRowIndex&,iColIndex%)
'calls: getSheetCell
REM returns color code as number
Dim v
   v = getSheetCell(vSheet,lRowIndex&,iColIndex%)
   if vartype(v) = 9 then
      CELL_BACKCOLOR = v.CellBackColor
   else
      CELL_BACKCOLOR = v
   endif
End Function
Function CELL_VISIBLE(vSheet,lRowIndex&,iColIndex%)
'calls: getSheetCell
REM returns visibility state as number 0|1
Dim v
   v = getSheetCell(vSheet,lRowIndex&,iColIndex%)
   if vartype(v) = 9 then
      CELL_VISIBLE = Abs(v.Rows.isVisible)
   else
      CELL_VISIBLE = v
   endif
End Function
Function CELL_LOCKED(vSheet,lRowIndex&,iColIndex%)
'calls: getSheetCell
REM returns locked state as number 0|1
Dim v
   v = getSheetCell(vSheet,lRowIndex&,iColIndex%)
   if vartype(v) = 9 then
      CELL_LOCKED = Abs(v.CellProtection.isLocked)
   else
      CELL_LOCKED = v
   endif
End Function
Function CELL_NumberFormat(vSheet,lRowIndex&,iColIndex%)
'calls: getSheetCell
REM returns the number format index
Dim v
   v = getSheetCell(vSheet,lRowIndex&,iColIndex%)
   if vartype(v) = 9 then
      CELL_NumberFormat = v.NumberFormat
   else
      CELL_NumberFormat = v
   endif
End Function
Function CELL_NumberFormatType(vSheet,lRowIndex&,iColIndex%)
'calls: getSheetCell
REM return a numeric com.sun.star.util.NumberFormat which describes a format category
Dim v,lNF&
   v = getSheetCell(vSheet,lRowIndex&,iColIndex%)
   if vartype(v) = 9 then
      lNF = v.NumberFormat
      CELL_NumberFormatType = ThisComponent.getNumberFormats.getByKey(lNF).Type
   else
      CELL_NumberFormatType = v
   endif
End Function

'################### HELPERS FOR ABOVE CELL FUNCTIONS #########################################
Function getSheet(byVal vSheet)
REM Helper for sheet functions. Get cell from sheet's name or position; cell's row-position; cell's col-position
on error goto exitErr
   select case varType(vSheet)
   case is = 8
      if thisComponent.sheets.hasbyName(vSheet) then
         getSheet = thisComponent.sheets.getByName(vSheet)
      else
         getSheet = NULL
      endif
   case 2 to 5
      vSheet = cInt(vSheet)
      'Wow! Calc has sheets with no name at index < 0,
      ' so NOT isNull(oSheet), if vSheet <= lbound(sheets) = CRASH!
      'http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=58796
      if(vSheet <= thisComponent.getSheets.getCount)AND(vSheet > 0) then
         getSheet = thisComponent.sheets.getByIndex(vSheet -1)
      else
         getSheet = NULL
      endif
   end select
exit function
exitErr:
getSheet = NULL
End Function

Function getSheetCell(byVal vSheet,byVal lRowIndex&,byVal iColIndex%)
dim oSheet
'   print vartype(vsheet)
   oSheet = getSheet(vSheet)
   if varType(oSheet) <>9 then
      getSheetCell = NULL
   elseif (lRowIndex > oSheet.rows.count)OR(lRowIndex < 1) then
      getSheetCell = NULL
   elseif (iColIndex > oSheet.columns.count)OR(iColIndex < 1) then
      getSheetCell = NULL
   else
      getSheetCell = oSheet.getCellByPosition(iColIndex -1,lRowIndex -1)
   endif
End Function