Conditional Cell Execution in Electronic Spreadsheets

Abstract

An improved electronic spreadsheet is provided for applications requiring conditional expression execution behavior. Each cell having an executable expression is cooperative with an implicit conditional execution wrapper. The execution of each cellular expression is implicitly conditioned on the state of an individually assigned logical switch expression. The improved electronic spreadsheet also includes a user interface by which a user can assign logical switch expressions to a cell, or to a range of cells. The improved electronic spreadsheet facilitates the use of spreadsheets for wider range of applications than was possible with conventional electronic spreadsheets.

Description

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSUREThe present disclosure related to electronic spreadsheets, and more particularly to computer programming using electronic spreadsheets.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONThe superior ease-of-use characteristics of electronic spreadsheets are well-known, especially in the field of office automation. The use of electronic spreadsheets in other fields is also know, although in the past, many computer applications have been unable to take advantage of the spreadsheet metaphor. One reason for this may be computer applications are often required to exhibit conditional statement execution behavior. However, conditional statement execution behavior is beyond the capability of conventional electronic spreadsheet programs.In the field of pattern recognition, for example, it is common for a single program to execute one set of instructions during training, and another set of instructions during classification, the Instructions for classification being dependent on exemplar data ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

"The patent describes a method for controlling the execution of functions in a computer program, using logical switch expressions. These expressions can be entered into a cell using a pop-up dialog box, which can be closed to make the expression invisible. The expression can be evaluated to true or false, and if it evaluates to true, the cell's expression is evaluated and a new result value is returned. The method allows for the assignment of logical switch expressions to individual cells or ranges of cells, and can program desired behavior beyond what is currently possible. Overall, the method provides a flexible and efficient way to control function execution in computer programming."

Problems solved by technology

However, conditional statement execution behavior is beyond the capability of conventional electronic spreadsheet programs.

Consequently, known electronic spreadsheets cannot adequately be used for programming applications in the field of pattern recognition.

The limitation of conventional spreadsheet makes programming certain kinds of behavior difficult, if not impossible.

However, the function IF, CHOOSE, and similar functions, are only capable of selecting among result values, and are incapable of controlling the order of execution of expressions associated with a cell or a set of cells within the spreadsheet.

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