Weird Numbers app behavior with search and replace

[alltiagocom]

This has happened to me before and I have no idea what causes it.
I have this CSV file that I exported from my short URL service with all my short links. Then I converted it to a Numbers file. I want to replace https with something else and when I use search and replace, it finds all the 166 instances, but all the options are grayed out

On this particular case, for some weird reason, it almost always behave like this if the search starts with the letter h. Tried all the other letters, all worked, except for anything starting with h. Go figure…

If I delete some of the columns and try it again, then all options are not grayed out. If I undo everything, going back to all the columns, the issue sometimes comes back, sometimes it works.

Then I create a brand new document, type https, try search and replace. It works.

Any idea what kind of bug is this? Is this an issue with CSV files that were converted to Numbers?

EDIT: Notice that the h in Short works, but when it’s in https, it doesn’t:

When I remove the link, it also works:

So why is the link causing this issue?

At the same time, a word inside a link, also works:

[neonate]

I did some brief testing. I don’t think it has anything to do with it being an imported csv file nor anything to do with the letter “h”.

The first 2 fields are links. The third (https) is just text.

If you try to replace “talk” with “test”, it won’t replace in the first instance, but works in the second instance.

If you try to replace “https” with “test”, it won’t replace in the first instance, but works in the second instance.

The key, I believe, is it won’t replace the protocol in a link (in this case “https” in https://talk.macpowerusers.com) nor the first word in a domain name (in this case “talk” in talk.macpowerusers.com), if there is not a protocol in front.

Maybe someone here can explain this better than me. Hope this helps.

[karlnyhus]

Make the fix in the CSV file before importing. Or export, make the fix, and re-import.

My guess is the Numbers app tries to “protect” certain formatting when it detects a URL. Similar to how it tries to maintain formatting in a date field.