Implement protectRange() #421
Closed
Conversation
This file contains bidirectional Unicode text that may be interpreted or compiled differently than what appears below. To review, open the file in an editor that reveals hidden Unicode characters.
Learn more about bidirectional Unicode characters
Closed
Sign up for free
to join this conversation on GitHub.
Already have an account?
Sign in to comment
Add this suggestion to a batch that can be applied as a single commit.
This suggestion is invalid because no changes were made to the code.
Suggestions cannot be applied while the pull request is closed.
Suggestions cannot be applied while viewing a subset of changes.
Only one suggestion per line can be applied in a batch.
Add this suggestion to a batch that can be applied as a single commit.
Applying suggestions on deleted lines is not supported.
You must change the existing code in this line in order to create a valid suggestion.
Outdated suggestions cannot be applied.
This suggestion has been applied or marked resolved.
Suggestions cannot be applied from pending reviews.
Suggestions cannot be applied on multi-line comments.
Suggestions cannot be applied while the pull request is queued to merge.
Suggestion cannot be applied right now. Please check back later.
This PR implements the
protectRange()function. It supersedes #412. It protects an Excel range so that when a worksheet is protected withprotectWorksheet(), specific ranges are still editable with or without a password specific to that range.Note that this only works properly on a Windows version of Excel. On Mac, there is no UI window for protecting ranges. That said, on my Mac, I can use
protectRange()without a password and it leaves the range open for editing when i lock the rest of it withprotectWorksheet(). If I use a password, I get a strange "Activate" window that pops up when I try to edit the cells, and when I click okay it gives me an error saying I typed in the wrong password. I've made a note in the docs saying it only works properly on Windows.There are no checks that the range is in a correct Excel format. If an incorrect format is supplied, upon opening the Excel workbook Excel will complain and ask if you want to remove the faulty XML. If you say yes, it will remove the protected range (in fact I think it removes all of them?).
It is meaningful for overlapping ranges to be protected with multiple passwords. See the documentation Details section for more info.
I see this PR being useful when creating data entry templates with R. A data scientist could create a boxed off "holy grail" sheet / range where an analyst can enter data and then pass it back to the data scientist for further munging. The protection prevents the analyst from entering data in cells that could cause the data scientist issues.