RNX0301 using hssf_formula() in HSSF/POI witn SUMIF()

[Douglas Handy <dhandy@xxxxxxxxx>]

I am getting a Java exception when trying to use Scott's hssf_formula()
wrapper to the POI classes to insert a SUMIF() function.  Specifically, it
works when my cell references contain a single letter (such as A1) but fails
when a cell reference contains two letters (such as AA1).  As an example,
this formula fails:

SUMIF(Invoices!Y:Y,F83,Invoices!AA:AA)

I have tried numerous variations on the cell reference, including with and
without $ qualifiers and with and without rows as well (eg $AA$1:$AA$100).
Anytime I only reference columns from A-Z it works, and anytime I reference
AA or beyond it fails with RNX0301:

 Message . . . . :   Java exception received when calling Java
method.
 Cause . . . . . :   RPG procedure HSSF_FORMU in program NATIVE/HSSFR4
received
   Java exception "java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Invalid Formula
cell
   reference: 'AA'" when calling method "setC" with signature "" in
class

"org.apache.poi.hssf.usermodel.HSSFCell".

So it seems to not like my formula cell reference, but I can't find any
variation which works for columns beyond column Z.  In testing, it seems it
works for SUM() but not for SUMIF() expressions.  Is this just a bug in the
POI class which parses the SUMIF() arguments?  I am not finding any web hits
for known problems with SUMIF in POI.

Any suggestions?

I would try using a named range instead, but HSSFName object class is not
implemented in Scott's service program, and the syntax for doing it myself
is not readily apparent.

Has anyone implemented range / cell names?  I don't know if it will let me
circumvent my SUMIF() problem or not, but it is about the only syntax
variation left to try.

Doug