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AutoComplete Calculator Function

It just adds up...

(+13, -1)

[vote for,
against]

PC calculators seem to have the capacity to remember only one number with M+/MR, and a second can be stored on your clipboard.
When doing simple division for example, where there are multiple numerators and denominators in the problem that each need to be calculated individually, I find I need to write/copy-paste each of these as they're calculated and then punch them in again to do the final calculation.
Admittedly I'm not the most efficient calculator user, but my sort would definitely benefit from an autocomplete function that suggested recent entries or calculations in a drop-down window instead of having to manually enter them.

—	shudderprose, Mar 25 2009

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Maybe there could be scratch paper on the screen (with a pencil tool) and you could scribble your notes on the screen using the mouse and then drag/drop onto the calculator. (Or type them, I guess)

—	phundug, Mar 25 2009

I'm voting in favour of this because it's a simple solution... who wants to use a bloody spread sheet every time they want to make a few grand total calculations that involve bringing a series of sub-totals forward?

—	xenzag, Mar 25 2009

This could easily be baked as a feature of a calculator app on a cellphone. Once the cellphone finally replaces the calculator, autocomplete would be a standard feature.

—	Psudomorph, Mar 25 2009

Yes, i like [+]. Concerning the mobile/cellphone comment, the calculator apps i've used on them are shockingly awful. It amazes me that they have something like video messaging at the same time as a calculator facility which could be beaten by an early twentieth century mechanical device.
Having said that, i also think the calculator app is a special case of non-feature creep. The more features of a particular kind a calculator has, the closer it gets to being a stored-program computer. For instance, i can imagine a calculator which implements APL. What would that make it?

—	nineteenthly, Mar 28 2009

This is an idea whose time has come; it could now be implemented on graphing calculators, which in the past did not possess enough memory.

—	Spacecoyote, Mar 28 2009

I was playing with my nephew's claculator (yes, I know) the other day, a Casio, and I think it may have had such a function - It certainly had multiple "lines" you could scroll through, and I think you could cut and paste results

Welcome, BTW

—	Dub, Mar 29 2009

//who wants to use a bloody spread sheet every time they want to make a few grand total calculations that involve bringing a series of sub-totals forward?//

You could install some really old office/spreadsheet program. I've got Microsoft Works 2 somewhere and it is only a couple of megabytes in size. That means a nice quick load when you want to use it.

For more basic applications like Calculator, I do agree that they should store more than one number. As should real calculators. It's not like we can't afford the 8 bytes per number they take up.

—	Bad Jim, Mar 29 2009

What you want is a TI. 84, 89, doesn't matter - every middle school-college student has one within arm's reach.

—	DIYMatt, Mar 30 2009

I can do one better, [bad jim], Lotus 1-2-3 fits on a 5Œ" floppy. And it still runs.

—	Spacecoyote, Mar 30 2009

Great idea.

—	danman, Jul 12 2009

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