ChatGPT-Excel-Functions
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Fix #VALUE! error by adding API key validation and improved error handling
Problem
Users who follow the installation instructions but don't replace the default API key placeholder (sk-YOUR-CHATGPT-KEY-HERE) with their actual OpenAI API key receive a cryptic #VALUE! error in Excel when trying to use any of the ChatGPT functions, as shown in the issue screenshot.
Solution
This PR adds several improvements to make the error more user-friendly and guide users to the correct solution:
- Added validation check for the API key to detect if it's still the default placeholder
- Added a clear, descriptive error message that explicitly tells users to replace the API key
- Improved the API response parsing logic to be more robust and handle edge cases better
- Updated documentation to emphasize the importance of replacing the API key
- Added troubleshooting information about
#VALUE!errors in the README
Changes:
- Added API key validation check in
GetChatGPTResponsefunction - Improved response parsing to avoid reliance on hardcoded offsets and to better handle API response variations
- Updated README to make the API key replacement step more prominent
- Added troubleshooting note specifically for
#VALUE!errors - Updated code comments to emphasize the API key requirement
These changes provide a much better user experience by giving clear, actionable feedback when users forget to replace the placeholder API key with their own.
Fixes #4.
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