openxlsx write R dataframe to XLSX with cell reference from worksheet to another

Question

I am trying to write formulas from an R dataframe to XLSX file. I want to reference data from one worksheet in another using cell references. One worksheet is suppposed to be a "database" and then the other sheet is supposed to have the "formula" which references data from the "database" sheet.

The R code:

require(openxlsx)

# create workbook ---------------------------------------------------------

wb <- createWorkbook()

# add worksheets ----------------------------------------------------------

addWorksheet(wb, "database")
addWorksheet(wb, "database space")
addWorksheet(wb, "reference")

# make database -----------------------------------------------------------

df1 <- data.frame(
    a = 1,
    b = 2,
    formula_1 = "A2 + B2"
)

## change class to formula
class(df1$formula_1) <- c(class(df1$formula_1), "formula")

# prepare formula ---------------------------------------------------------

df2 <- data.frame(
    formula_2 = "$database.A2",
    formula_3 = "$'database space'.B2"
)

# change class to formula
class(df2$formula_2) <- c(class(df2$formula_2), "formula")
class(df2$formula_3) <- c(class(df2$formula_3), "formula")

# write to XLSX file ------------------------------------------------------

writeData(wb, sheet = "database", x = df1)
writeData(wb, sheet = "database space", x = df1)
writeData(wb, sheet = "reference", x = df2)

# open XLSX file ----------------------------------------------------------

openXL(wb)

The usual way of adding a formula works. In the openend XLSX file this is demonstrated in cell C3 of worksheet database and database space . But, when opening worksheet formula , my issue presents itself (see screenshot 1). Cells A2 and B2 both show #NAME? and not the value of the other worksheets.

However, when I add the cell reference manually, it works (see screenshot 2).

openxlsx version

> packageVersion("openxlsx")
[1] ‘4.0.17’

How can I solve this problem?

Answer 1

The problem here are the names that are passed to df2 . The solution to the problem is to remove the $ and replace the . with a ! .

Replacing df2 in the code above with the following works:

df2 <- data.frame(
    formula_2 = "database!A2",
    formula_3 = "'database space'!B2"
)

The character strings are now evaluated as formulas and correctly reference cells from other sheets. I found the solution by working through the XLConnect R package, where an example in the help file for setCellFormula-methods includes a formula as a reference to a separate sheet.