HF-131 (1/7): every interpreter cell error carries a message by marcin-kordas-hoc · Pull Request #1761 · handsontable/hyperformula

marcin-kordas-hoc · 2026-09-10T13:44:54Z

Context

The PR makes every cell error built inside the interpreter carry a message that states its cause. It is part 1 of 7 of HF-131 (#1761 → #1767).

Why: 77 new CellError(...) calls in 15 files under hyperformula/src/interpreter/ passed no message, so DetailedCellError.message was '' for errors such as =1/0.
What changed:
- 15 interpreter files: each of the 77 calls passes an ErrorMessage constant. 45 of them are #DIV/0! and share the new ErrorMessage.DivisionByZero.
- hyperformula/src/error-message.ts: 10 new constants.
- hyperformula/.eslintrc.js: a no-restricted-syntax rule for src/interpreter/**/*.ts rejects new CellError(...) with no message or with an explicit undefined. HF-131 (2/7): the origin/propagation mechanism, plus the same guarantee outside the interpreter #1762 widens it to all of src/.
Result: =1/0 reports Division by zero. and =NA() reports The NA function always evaluates to the #N/A error. The error types do not change.

The public CellError constructor is unchanged: message stays optional for custom functions.

How did you test your changes?

Paired tests: handsontable/hyperformula-tests#59 on feat/hf-131-error-messages. It adds unit/error-messages.spec.ts and message assertions to the RATE, SKEW, SKEW.P and TTEST specs.
error-messages.spec.ts with the RATE, SKEW and TTEST specs: 39 tests pass against this head; all 4 suites fail against develop, where the new constants do not exist.
The lint rule fires: a bare new CellError(ErrorType.DIV_BY_ZERO) and one with an explicit undefined message in ModuloPlugin.ts each produce a no-restricted-syntax error.
CI is green on this head, except the repository-wide FOSSA license check.

Compatibility with Excel and Google Sheets

Not applicable: the error types and the displayed values (#DIV/0!, #NUM!, #N/A, #VALUE!) do not change. Only the message text does.

Public API changes

None to signatures. DetailedCellError.message is now non-empty for these 77 errors.

Out of scope and follow-ups

Cell errors built outside src/interpreter/: HF-131 (2/7): the origin/propagation mechanism, plus the same guarantee outside the interpreter #1762.

Types of changes

Breaking change (existing functionality no longer works as before) – agreed with the maintainers
New feature or improvement (a non-breaking change that adds functionality)
Bug fix (a non-breaking change that fixes an issue)
Additional language file, or a change to an existing language file (translations)
Change to the documentation

Related issues

Part of Improve the formula error messages #1547 (HF-131).

Checklist

My pull request meets the Definition of Done. External contributors: see also Contributing to HyperFormula.
I have signed the Contributor License Agreement.
I read my own diff end to end before requesting a review.
I added a CHANGELOG.md entry, written by the changelog rules – or none is needed (docs, tests or tooling only).
I updated the documentation and JSDoc to match the change.
Breaking change only: I added a section to the migration guide.
I updated the dev-docs/ pages this change affects – or none needed it.

Fills in all 78 call sites in src/interpreter/ that constructed a CellError with no message, so a consumer no longer receives a bare #DIV/0! or #NUM! with an empty message string. Ten new catalogue entries in src/error-message.ts, not 78: the 46 division-by-zero sites share one ErrorMessage.DivisionByZero, and the 26 NUM sites mostly reuse entries that already existed (ValueLarge, ValueSmall, NotHex, NaN, BadMode, ComplexNumberExpected and others). New entries were added only where nothing existing was accurate -- NoBroadcastValue, SearchRangeDimension, NaFunction, TwoCashFlows, PositiveAndNegative, NonZeroPeriods, NoConvergence, RateGuess, MaturityLong. No error type changes and no signature changes; ArithmeticHelper.ts gains only a message literal inside divide(). Nothing under src/i18n/ is touched -- this slice is English-only by an explicit product decision. Produced by a prep-ship (`spec-to-ship`) run: `prep-ship ship hf131-messages --task-file ... --yes`. The run authored its acceptance specs first, then iterated implementation against them. It was killed by a process restart before reaching its own commit step, so this commit was made by hand from the work it left in the worktree, after verifying it: - 78 message-less sites -> 0, counted with the same command the task file gave. - tsc --noEmit and eslint --quiet both clean. - Full private suite: 5 failed / 6165 passed / 6173 total, against a baseline of 5 failed / 6157 passed / 6165 total. The 5 are a pre-existing test-repo branch-pinning mismatch, unrelated. The +8 are the run's own new specs, all passing. - The run also updated three pre-existing specs whose expectations had gone stale (error-address-preservation, arrays, matrix-plugin). Checked each: it added the message argument to detailedErrorWithOrigin, which strengthens those assertions rather than weakening them -- they still compare the address, and now the message too, via catalogue constants. No test was loosened to reach green. The ESLint rule that would stop a message-less CellError being reintroduced is deliberately NOT here: the harness commits only src, docs and CHANGELOG.md, so an .eslintrc.js change would have been silently dropped. It needs its own step. Test-side changes live in the private repo and are not part of this commit. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

Enforces the guarantee this PR's message-filling work establishes: a message-less new CellError(...) construction under src/interpreter/ is now a lint error. Two selectors — a bare one-argument call, and an explicit literal undefined as the second argument (the exact shape the two CYCLE sites in src/Evaluator.ts still use; Evaluator.ts is outside src/interpreter/ so this rule doesn't reach them yet, and is unaffected by this commit). Verified: 0 lint errors on the full src/ tree (same pre-existing warning count as before this commit — no new warnings). The rule was proven to actually fire, not just parse, by temporarily reverting one src/interpreter/ plugin site to a bare 'new CellError(ErrorType.NUM)', observing the expected lint error, then restoring it (git diff empty afterward). Widened to all of src/ in the next PR in this stack (feat/hf-131-error-messages-outside-interpreter). Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

qunabu · 2026-09-10T13:45:00Z

Task linked: HF-131 Verbose and actionable formula error messages

cloudflare-workers-and-pages · 2026-09-10T13:47:35Z

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Status	Name	Latest Commit	Preview URL	Updated (UTC)
✅ Deployment successful! View logs	hyperformula-docs	`7673ddf`	Commit Preview URL Branch Preview URL	Oct 23 2026, 07:17 AM

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…messages # Conflicts: # CHANGELOG.md # src/error-message.ts # src/interpreter/plugin/ConditionalAggregationPlugin.ts # src/interpreter/plugin/ModuloPlugin.ts

github-actions · 2026-09-11T03:33:39Z

Performance comparison of head (`7673ddf`) vs base (`d143456`)

                                     testName |    base |    head |  change
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                      Sheet A |  503.56 |  505.06 |  +0.30%
                                      Sheet B |  165.12 |  163.49 |  -0.99%
                                      Sheet T |  147.02 |  143.08 |  -2.68%
                                Column ranges |  475.75 |  475.37 |  -0.08%
                                Sorted lookup | 14188.9 | 14370.6 |  +1.28%
Sheet A:  change value, add/remove row/column |   17.48 |   14.73 | -15.73%
 Sheet B: change value, add/remove row/column |  148.39 |  142.46 |  -4.00%
                   Column ranges - add column |  159.98 |  152.48 |  -4.69%
                Column ranges - without batch |  491.17 |  486.78 |  -0.89%
                        Column ranges - batch |  126.29 |  120.28 |  -4.76%

No engine changes -- the paired hyperformula-tests branch for this PR gained 4 new coverage-closing test cases after the initial CI run, and re-running the same commit isn't possible; this empty commit forces a fresh run so codecov/patch reflects them. Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

HF-131 is a ClickUp id; GitHub #131 is an unrelated, closed issue about array type support. The work this stack does is tracked by #1547. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

Tobiadefami

Looks good. Verified the added error messages and that the lint rule rejects both missing messages and explicit undefined.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

# Conflicts: # CHANGELOG.md # hyperformula/src/error-message.ts # hyperformula/src/interpreter/plugin/DatabasePlugin.ts # hyperformula/src/interpreter/plugin/NumericAggregationPlugin.ts

…s point Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

codecov · 2026-10-23T07:22:50Z

Codecov Report

❌ Patch coverage is 98.86364% with 1 line in your changes missing coverage. Please review.
✅ Project coverage is 97.31%. Comparing base (d143456) to head (7673ddf).

Files with missing lines	Patch %	Lines
...rformula/src/interpreter/plugin/FinancialPlugin.ts	97.29%	1 Missing ⚠️

Additional details and impacted files

@@             Coverage Diff             @@
##           develop    #1761      +/-   ##
===========================================
+ Coverage    97.28%   97.31%   +0.03%     
===========================================
  Files          207      207              
  Lines        16218    16229      +11     
  Branches      3556     3588      +32     
===========================================
+ Hits         15777    15794      +17     
+ Misses         433      427       -6     
  Partials         8        8

Files with missing lines	Coverage Δ
hyperformula/src/error-message.ts	`100.00% <100.00%> (ø)`
hyperformula/src/interpreter/ArithmeticHelper.ts	`98.67% <100.00%> (ø)`
hyperformula/src/interpreter/Interpreter.ts	`95.39% <100.00%> (ø)`
...performula/src/interpreter/plugin/ComplexPlugin.ts	`100.00% <100.00%> (ø)`
...interpreter/plugin/ConditionalAggregationPlugin.ts	`100.00% <100.00%> (ø)`
...erformula/src/interpreter/plugin/DatabasePlugin.ts	`94.97% <100.00%> (ø)`
...ormula/src/interpreter/plugin/InformationPlugin.ts	`93.33% <100.00%> (ø)`
...yperformula/src/interpreter/plugin/LookupPlugin.ts	`97.26% <100.00%> (ø)`
hyperformula/src/interpreter/plugin/MathPlugin.ts	`100.00% <100.00%> (ø)`
...yperformula/src/interpreter/plugin/ModuloPlugin.ts	`100.00% <100.00%> (ø)`
... and 6 more

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marcin-kordas-hoc and others added 2 commits September 7, 2026 16:46

This was referenced Sep 10, 2026

HF-131 (2/7): the origin/propagation mechanism, plus the same guarantee outside the interpreter #1762

Open

HF-131 (3/7): a consumer can tell 'no message' from 'empty message' #1763

Open

HF-131 (7/7): documentation #1767

Open

cursor Bot reviewed Sep 10, 2026

View reviewed changes

Comment thread CHANGELOG.md Outdated

Comment thread hyperformula/.eslintrc.js

marcin-kordas-hoc requested a review from Tobiadefami September 11, 2026 03:08

Merge remote-tracking branch 'origin/develop' into feat/hf-131-error-…

908a655

…messages # Conflicts: # CHANGELOG.md # src/error-message.ts # src/interpreter/plugin/ConditionalAggregationPlugin.ts # src/interpreter/plugin/ModuloPlugin.ts

marcin-kordas-hoc and others added 2 commits September 11, 2026 05:30

HF-131: link the changelog entry to the issue it closes

c5b33cb

HF-131 is a ClickUp id; GitHub #131 is an unrelated, closed issue about array type support. The work this stack does is tracked by #1547. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

Tobiadefami reviewed Sep 21, 2026

View reviewed changes

marcin-kordas-hoc and others added 3 commits October 22, 2026 15:23

chore: state the cell-error lint rule without a ticket reference

49dba5c

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

Merge develop into feat/hf-131-error-messages

6bea218

# Conflicts: # CHANGELOG.md # hyperformula/src/error-message.ts # hyperformula/src/interpreter/plugin/DatabasePlugin.ts # hyperformula/src/interpreter/plugin/NumericAggregationPlugin.ts

HF-131: Describe the changelog entry by what the change covers at thi…

7673ddf

…s point Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

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HF-131 (1/7): every interpreter cell error carries a message - #1761

HF-131 (1/7): every interpreter cell error carries a message#1761
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Performance comparison of head (`7673ddf`) vs base (`d143456`)