fix: pressing arrow left next to = adds ref for left cell

[AyushAgrawal-A2]

closes #1758

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Name	Status	Preview	Updated (UTC)
quadratic	✅ Ready (Inspect)	Visit Preview	Aug 27, 2024 6:05am

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Codecov Report

All modified and coverable lines are covered by tests ✅

Project coverage is 90.91%. Comparing base (178cfc0) to head (dcf5c10).
Report is 146 commits behind head on qa.

Additional details and impacted files

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  Coverage   90.91%   90.91%           
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  Files         206      206           
  Lines       41911    41911           
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  Hits        38104    38104           
  Misses       3807     3807           

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[davidkircos]

Nice! This solves the issue in the attached PR.

If it's simple we should also make left arrow work for any positon where you can reference a cell. For example if you do

=[Left arrorw] + [Left arrow]
the second left arrow should also reference the cell to the left, not move the cursor within the formula
https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/e9fb287f-0ef7-423b-9e47-8f117515c398

[AyushAgrawal-A2]

If it's simple we should also make left arrow work for any positon where you can reference a cell. For example if you do

=[Left arrorw] + [Left arrow]
the second left arrow should also reference the cell to the left, not move the cursor within the formula

@davidkircos
this is currently disable for both left and right arrow, current code restricts the behaviour to

• Left arrow adds cell reference if pressed when cursor is next to = (added in this PR)
• Right arrow adds cell reference if pressed when cursor is at last position

we should enable both or none for inserting cell references when cursor in middle of text. there is existing logic to decide whether a cursor position wants a cell ref or not. should be easy to just enable it, but there must be a reason why this was disabled in the first place.

[davidkircos]

If it's simple we should also make left arrow work for any positon where you can reference a cell. For example if you do
=[Left arrorw] + [Left arrow]
the second left arrow should also reference the cell to the left, not move the cursor within the formula

@davidkircos this is currently disable for both left and right arrow, current code restricts the behaviour to

• Left arrow adds cell reference if pressed when cursor is next to = (added in this PR)
• Right arrow adds cell reference if pressed when cursor is at last position

we should enable both or none for inserting cell references when cursor in middle of text. there is existing logic to decide whether a cursor position wants a cell ref or not. should be easy to just enable it, but there must be a reason why this was disabled in the first place.

We want to match the behavior of other spreadsheets. Other sheets allow any arrow keys to select cells at any valid position for a cell reference in the Formula.

[HactarCE]

We want to match the behavior of other spreadsheets. Other sheets allow any arrow keys to select cells at any valid position for a cell reference in the Formula.

Other spreadsheets also disable arrow key cell selection after clicking in the inline editor. Personally I find this hidden state very confusing (and inconvenient, since I like navigating text using keyboard) but we'll need to track it if we want consistency.

[davidkircos]

Implementing more of the Excel behavior makes sense in this PR. This behavior is really important for users with Formulas.
specifically:

• All arrow keys can be used to select cells in any valid cell reference position in a formula.

[AyushAgrawal-A2]

If it's simple we should also make left arrow work for any positon where you can reference a cell. For example if you do

=[Left arrorw] + [Left arrow]
the second left arrow should also reference the cell to the left, not move the cursor within the formula

@davidkircos
done

[davidkircos]

This seems to work great! Big improvement!

[HactarCE]

It is now effectively impossible to edit a formula using only the keyboard without retyping the whole thing. I find this inconvenient personally, but I think it's also an accessibility issue.

Left arrow next to the initial = is ok because there's no reason to have your cursor to the left of =, but now it's basically impossible to move the cursor within the inline formula editor.

Anecdotally, it feels very inconsistent: occasionally left arrow moves within the formula, other times it inserts a cell reference, and usually it just closes the formula editor entirely. I prefer requiring up/down arrows to insert cell references, because those are not used for single-line text navigation anyway so there's no conflict.

[davidkircos]

It is now effectively impossible to edit a formula using only the keyboard without retyping the whole thing. I find this inconvenient personally, but I think it's also an accessibility issue.

Left arrow next to the initial = is ok because there's no reason to have your cursor to the left of =, but now it's basically impossible to move the cursor within the inline formula editor.

Anecdotally, it feels very inconsistent: occasionally left arrow moves within the formula, other times it inserts a cell reference, and usually it just closes the formula editor entirely. I prefer requiring up/down arrows to insert cell references, because those are not used for single-line text navigation anyway so there's no conflict.
@HactarCE
How does our behavior differ from other spreadsheets? I didn't have any issues editing formulas with just the keyboard.

[HactarCE]

Excel has the behavior of this PR (or close to it) when initially creating a formula (by double-clicking a blank or non-formula cell and typing =, or by selecting any cell and pressing =). There are three actions that break out of this mode:

• Clicking once in the inline editor while it is already open
• Double-clicking on an existing formula cell to edit it
• Pressing F2 to edit a cell (whether it is blank or contains a formula)

After any of those three actions, arrow keys navigate within the inline editor and it becomes impossible to use the arrow keys to insert a cell reference.

---

Google Sheets is even more confusing; it is similar to Excel, but it's sometimes possible to re-enter the "arrow keys to insert cell references" state. If I type =B1+C1 into a cell, then close and reopen the formula editor and press backspace twice to delete C1, then whether I can use arrow keys to insert a cell reference depends on the timing between my two backspace keypresses.

Screen.Recording.2024-08-28.at.9.19.04.PM.mov

---

IMO both of these behaviors are surprising (hidden state! and why is F2 different from double-clicking?) and inconvenient (I can't insert cell references when editing an existing formula?) Personally, I like Quadratic's current behavior because it has no hidden state and is always possible to navigate within the inline editor (using left/right) and insert cells (using up/down), although inserting a reference to a left/right cell requires the counterintuitive key sequence ↑ ↓ ←. I think replicating Excel's behavior (or any hybrid between what Excel does and what we currently do) would also be acceptable.

[qa-wolf]

E2E tests

QA 5 blocking bugs

Ran	Status	Preview	Started	Run time	Est. dev time saved
71 workflows	Done (Details)		Sep 4, 2024 at 1:51 AM (UTC)	16 minutes	~40.33 hrs

✅ 45 passed

• Right Click Actions

• Cell Reference - Javascript

• Can Stop Code Execution

• Basic Formula Creation

• Cell Formatting

• Help Actions

• AI Assistant

• Drag Relative References

• Docs page

• Cell Reference - Python

• Log In

• Number Formatting

• Share File - Dashboard

• Members Can Leave Team

• Javascript Formulas

• Zoom Options

• Switch between Python and Formula

• Create Example

• Open Python Editor

• Upload Large File

• Resize Column width with Fill

• View Actions

• Open Formula Editor

• Invite Member to Team

• Auto-Complete

• Code Snippets

• Code Editor Displays Return

• Manage Members

• Open and Use Formula Editor

• Read JavaScript Output within Formula

• Formulas

• Discard Changes

• Charts

• API Calls

• Spills

• Edit Share File Permissions

• Create New File

• Share File - Spreadsheet

• Sheet Actions

• Log Out

• Types: Series and Data-Frames

• Formatting

• Read Python Output within Formula

• Create a Team

• Rename Team

Preexisting bugs

5 Blocking bugs

If you are aware of any of these bugs, you can set their priority to low and prevent them from causing a run failure.
View all blocking bugs

• Unexpected Error When Navigating Back from Spreadsheet using the Browser

• Second file creation will result in indefinite loading

• Team modal appears when navigating back from newly created file using browser back button

• Command Palette New option doesn't create a new file with "Untitled" as name

• Duplicate file doesn't not produce exact copy and it is without (COPY) in the title name

1 Non-blocking bug

• Cells Evaluate to Error When Running All Code Cells

. . . . . . . .

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