Method for expanding and collapsing data cells in a spreadsheet report

Abstract

Data cells in a spreadsheet report are collapsed and expanded without disrupting other spreadsheet data. A user may want to drill down on data corresponding to a parent member of the report to display more detailed information about the parent member. Likewise, a user may want to drill up the displayed information corresponding to the parent member to hide detailed information associated with the parent member. Before expanding or collapsing a report, the spreadsheet is scanned for information to determine whether the display of other data in the spreadsheet would be disrupted by the expansion / collapse. The information may include cross-join information associated with the parent member, the number of child members associated with the parent member, the dimension of the report created by the parent member and the associated child members, and other reports that may be linked to the report that includes the parent member.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001] A spreadsheet is a table of values arranged in rows and columns. Each value can have a predefined relationship to the other values. If one value is changed, other values may also need to be changed. Spreadsheet applications are computer programs that allow for the electronic creation and manipulation of spreadsheets. In a spreadsheet application, each value sits in a data cell. A user may define what type of data is in each cell and how different cells depend on each other. The relationships between cells are called formulas, and the names of the cells are called labels. Data may be entered into the spreadsheet after the cells and the formulas for linking the cells together are defined. Selected values may be modified and other values may change accordingly. [0002] Data may be extracted from one or more files and presented to a spreadsheet application in a specified format. The data may be formatted into a report in rows and columns. A free-form re...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0006] The parent member is expanded into a report including the associated child members. The parent member is expanded based on the information obtained by scanning the spreadsheet such that the expansion does not disrupt the display of data cells in other areas of the spreadsheet external to the report. If the spreadsheet area between the vertical borders of the report and the vertical borders of the spreadsheet do not include any occupied data cells, then the rows in the spreadsheet may be replaced with rows that include the child members such that the child members appear in the expanded report without disrupting the integrity of data in the spreadsheet external to the report. If data cells in the spreadsheet area to the left or to the right of the report are occupied with values, but data cells in the spreadsheet area above or below the report are not occupied with values, then the report may be expanded by adding blank ranges of data cells to the report. The child members may then be written to the added data cells. If data cells in the spreadsheet area above or below the report are occupied with values, then the report may only be expanded if the display of the spreadsheet data external to the report is not disrupted by the expansion.

[0007] The child members may be collapsed such that only the associated parent member is displayed in the report. The child members are collapsed based on the information obtained by scanning the spreadsheet such that the collapse does not disrupt the display of data cells in other areas of the spreadsheet external to the report. If the data cells are empty in the spreadsheet area to the left and to the right of the report, all of the rows in the report that contain the child members are removed from display in the report. Any occupied spreadsheet data cells that are located below the report may be moved upward to occupy any data cells vacated by the removed child members. If the spreadsheet area between the left border of the report and the left border of the spreadsheet and right border of the report and the right border of the spreadsheet contains at least one occupied data cell but the spreadsheet area between the lower border of the report and the lower border of the spreadsheet does not contain any occupied data cells, the rows containing the child members are removed from the report range such that other data in the spreadsheet area to the right and to the left of the report is not disrupted. If the spreadsheet area between the lower (or upper) border of the report and the lower (or upper) border of the spreadsheet contains occupied data cells, the report may only be collapsed if the display of data in the spreadsheet would not be disrupted. Any remaining members of the report are moved upward as necessary.

Problems solved by technology

The expansion and collapse of child cells in a free-form report may disrupt other reports or text in the spreadsheet.

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