aaif-goose/goose · error

Invalid character in cell reference

Error message

Invalid character in cell reference

What it means

Error "Invalid character in cell reference" thrown in aaif-goose/goose.

Source

Thrown at crates/goose-mcp/src/computercontroller/xlsx_tool.rs:280

}

fn parse_cell_reference(reference: &str) -> Result<(u32, u32)> {
    // Parse Excel cell reference (e.g., "A1") and return (row, column) to match umya_spreadsheet's expectation
    let mut col_str = String::new();
    let mut row_str = String::new();
    let mut parsing_row = false;

    for c in reference.chars() {
        if c.is_alphabetic() {
            if parsing_row {
                anyhow::bail!("Invalid cell reference format");
            }
            col_str.push(c.to_ascii_uppercase());
        } else if c.is_numeric() {
            parsing_row = true;
            row_str.push(c);
        } else {
            anyhow::bail!("Invalid character in cell reference");
        }
    }

    let col = column_letter_to_number(&col_str)?;
    let row = row_str.parse::<u32>().context("Invalid row number")?;

    Ok((row, col))
}

fn column_letter_to_number(column: &str) -> Result<u32> {
    let mut result = 0u32;
    for c in column.chars() {
        if !c.is_ascii_alphabetic() {
            anyhow::bail!("Invalid column letter");
        }
        let digit = c.to_ascii_uppercase() as u32 - 'A' as u32 + 1;
        result = result
            .checked_mul(26)

View on GitHub (pinned to 3810898a74)

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at crates/goose-mcp/src/computercontroller/xlsx_tool.rs:280 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

Understand the failure class

• Parsing and encoding errors: unexpected token, malformed input — why parsers reject input and how to find the real culprit.

AI-assisted analysis of aaif-goose/goose@3810898a74 (2026-08-16). Data as JSON: /api/errors/8f8c40a63db9520f. Report an issue: GitHub.