Method for generating source code in a procedural, re-entrant-compatible programming language using a spreadsheet representation

• US 20050188352A1
• Filed: 02/14/2005
• Published: 08/25/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 02/17/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: xapio GmbH
• Original Assignee: xapio GmbH
• Inventors: Rosenau, Matthias, Jager, Bruno
• Granted Patent: US 8,015,481 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/106
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/18 of spreadsheets form-filling G06F40/174
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/30 Creation or generation of source code

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for operating a computer which has access to data of a database, having the steps: creating a spreadsheet using a table calculation program; defining logic operations between various cells of the spreadsheet; defining an assignment of the data from the database to the cells of the spreadsheet; and generating a source code of a procedural, re-entrant-compatible programming language from the spreadsheet, which when called, reads data from the database, executes a logic operation on it and outputs the result of the logic operation. The invention also relates to a method for generating source code in a procedural, re-entrant-compatible programming language from a spreadsheet representation, wherein a source code is generated from a representation of algorithms and/or data in one or more spreadsheets in such a way that cell areas with the same formula structure are mapped onto one or more methods of the programming language.

Claims

1. A method for operating a computer which has access to data of a data source, having the steps:

creating a spreadsheet using a table calculation program;

defining logic operations between various cells of the spreadsheet;

defining an assignment of the data from the data source to the cells of the spreadsheet; and

generating a source code of a procedural, re-entrant-compatible programming language from the spreadsheet, which when called, reads data from the data source, executes a logic operation on it and outputs the result of the logic operation.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1 in which the result of the logic operation is written again into a data sink.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, in which the logic operation on the data from data sources and the cells of the calculation program and its further use in formulas of other cells is interpreted by reference to example rows in such a way that from a changed data scope of the sources an adaptation of the spreadsheet is generated in such a way that the spreadsheet processes the additional data in a way which can in principle be predicted by the developer, wherein the measures of the adaptation consist in the generation of additional cells, if appropriate, with a copy of the formulas of adjacent formula cells and the adaptation of cell references into cell formulas.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, in which the logic operation on the data from data sources and the cells of the calculation program and its further use in formulas of other cells is interpreted using example rows in such a way that, in a form which can be predicted by the developer, specific cell areas are respectively newly executed for each logic unit of a source, that is to say the entirety of data of the source, which is mapped onto cells of a row of the spreadsheet.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1, in which the logic operation of the data from data sources and cells of the calculation program and its further use in formulas of other cells is interpreted using example rows in such a way that, in a form which can be predicted by the developer, specific logic units of a source, that is to say the specific totality of data of the source which is mapped onto cells of a row of the spreadsheet, are recognized as the last element of a group of similar units and cell formulas can make use of this knowledge of a group change.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1, in which cell formulas are capable of referencing their own current value and thus accumulating data.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1, in which the writing, updating and erasure of data is possible not only in external data sinks but also in a circumscribed cell area of the spreadsheet itself in such a way that this area adapts its size in accordance with these operations, and for other cell formulas it behaves in turn as a data source with which the cell areas of these cell formulas can therefore grow and shrink.

8. The method as claimed in claim 1, in which the result of the logic operation is output as a graphic in the table calculation program.

10. The method as claimed in claim 4, wherein whenever one or more of the methods which are formed are recursively dependent, the calculation sequence for this method is determined dynamically by storing information for each cell of the effective formula areas which indicates whether said cell has already been calculated in a path.

11. The method as claimed in claim 4 or 5, wherein if recursive dependencies of one or more of the methods formed cannot be detected statically, one or more of the following measures are taken:

making a plausible assumption about the method calculation sequence;

generating a warning message;

requesting the calculation sequence is input;

dynamic determination of a calculation sequence.

12. A computer program product which, after being loaded into a computer, is capable of executing the method as claimed in one of claims 1 to 6.

9. A method for generating source code in a procedural, re-entrant-compatible programming language from a spreadsheet representation, wherein a source code is generated from a representation of algorithms and/or data in one or more spreadsheets in such a way that cell areas with the same formula structure are mapped onto one or more methods of the programming language.