System and method for processing data in an electronic spreadsheet in accordance with a data type

• US 6,138,130 A
• Filed: 06/15/1998
• Issued: 10/24/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 12/08/1995
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: GFI Group Incorporated (BGC Group, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Inventure Technologies Incorporated
• Inventors: Adler, Dan, Salama, Roberto
• Primary Examiner(s): Hong, Stephen S.
• Application Number:
  US09/094,765
• Time in Patent Office: 862 Days
• Field of Search: 707/503, 707/504, 707/509, 707/515, 707/505, 345/440, 345/326, 345/333
• US Class Current: 715/210
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/174 Form filling; Merging
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/18 of spreadsheets form-filling G06F40/174

Abstract

An electronic spreadsheet, formed in accordance with the present invention, providing a user with improved data processing capability, includes displaying a visual presentation to the user, the visual presentation including a matrix, the matrix including columns, rows and cells, the cells being formed at intersections of the columns and the rows. The electronic spreadsheet associates objects and formulas with the cells, each object having an object type, each formula receiving an object as an argument, each formula having an operator for operating on the object received as the argument. Further, the electronic spreadsheet evaluates each formula, which includes assigning to the operator in each formula an operative expression selected in accordance with the object type of the object received as the argument of each formula. Still further, the electronic spreadsheet associates a result, obtained during the evaluating procedure, with each cell associated with each formula operating on the object. An additional feature of the invention is that it can be programmed to recognize new data types through user programming or other means. In addition, the invention has been implemented in a client-server computing environment, and in such a way to take advantage of the Java programming environment.

Claims

1. A computer-based data processing system suitable for performing analytical operations on complex data objects, said system being extensible to recognize and operate upon new data object types, said system comprising:

visual presentation display means for displaying a visual presentation to a user, the visual presentation including;

at least one cell matrix including columns, rows and cells, the cells being formed at intersections of the columns and the rows, wherein at least one cell contains a representation of a complex data object comprising reference information to data maintained in a data structure defined in an external computer system, said reference information incorporating characteristics of said externally stored data to enable the data processing system to perform operations on the complex data object; and

at least one text edit field capable of receiving information pertaining to objects and formulas entered by a user through input means;

first associating means for associating objects represented by a cell in the visual presentation and formulas received from a user with said cell;

scanning means for scanning a formula and an object associated with said formula by the first associating means, said scanning means defining permissible operators that may be applied to said object by said formula, said scanning means ensuring that the formula conforms to a preferred cell reference syntax, said scanning means translating each formula not in conformity with such syntax into the preferred cell reference syntax so that the formula can be processed by the system;

evaluating means for evaluating each formula associated with an object, wherein said evaluating means assigns a functional meaning to the operators in each formula in accordance with the object type of the object being operated upon by each formula, wherein at least one such operator is a polymorphic operator capable of assigning different functional meanings contingent on the type of data object being evaluated, said evaluating means further comprising;

means for re-evaluating each formula if a value within the at least one object changes; and

means for re-associating the result of each formula with each cell containing each formula operating on the at least one object whose value has changed;

second associating means for associating a result produced by said evaluating means with each cell associated with each formula operating on the at least one object;

representation producing means for producing at least one visual representation of at least one result produced by the evaluating means, said at least one visual representation being selectable by the user; and

instructing means for instructing the system to recognize new objects and new operators defined by a user.

2. A computer-based system as defined in claim 1, wherein the visual presentation further includes:

a query window, the query window receiving user-provided responses corresponding to English sentence-style pre-defined questions, the query window forming a formula in accordance therewith that is entered into the system through the at least one text edit field; and

a user-selected cell, the first associating means associating the formula formed by the query window with the user-selected cell, the evaluating means evaluating the formula and the second associating means associating a result of the formula with the user-selected cell.

3. A computer-based system as defined in claim 1, wherein each cell has a different visual appearance depending on the object type of each object associated therewith.

4. A computer-based system as defined in claim 1, wherein the instructing means comprises a computer programming language having a syntax selected from the group consisting of a C-programming language, a Java programming language and a Ranger scripting language.

5. A computer-based system as defined in claim 1, wherein the instructing means comprises an external object library.

6. A computer-based system as defined in claim 5, wherein the external object library is a Java class library.

7. A computer-based system as defined in claim 1, wherein the user identifies a user-selected cell through the input means and enters at least one character into the at least one text edit field through the input means, the system further comprising:

a memory storage unit, the memory storage unit being responsive to the first and second associating means and the evaluating means and containing signals corresponding to data associated with the object; and

means for correlating the at least one character with the data associated with the object and thereby associating the data with the user-selected cell.

8. A computer-based system defined in claim 1, wherein the system is deployed in a client-server computing environment, said environment comprising at least one client computer system operably linked through a computer network to at least one server computer system.

9. A computer-based system defined in claim 8, wherein the computer network is selected from the group consisting of a local area network, a wide-area network and the Internet.

10. A computer-based system as defined in claim 8, wherein the visual presentation means are implemented on the at least one client computer system.

11. A computer-based system as defined in claim 8, wherein the first and second associating means and the evaluating means are implemented on the at least one server computer system, and wherein the scanning means, the visual presentation display means, the instructing means and the respresentation producing means are implemented on the at least one client computer system.

12. A computer-based system as defined in claim 1, wherein the means comprises a computer memory in combination with computer program code.

13. A computer-based system as defined in claim 12, wherein the computer program code is selected from the group consisting of a C++ library and a Java class library.

14. A computer-based system as defined in claim 12, wherein each of the visual presentation means, the first and second associating means, the evaluating means, the representation producing means and the instructing means are implemented in a distinct Java class library.

15. A computer-based system as defined in claim 1, wherein the complex data object comprises a representation of a financial instrument.

16. A computer-based system as defined in claim 15, wherein the complex data object comprises a representation of an historical value of the financial instrument.

17. A computer-based system as defined in claim 16, wherein the complex data object comprises a representation of a financial Timeseries valuation of the financial instrument, and includes values corresponding to the date, time and sales price of said financial instrument.

18. A computer-based system as defined in claim 17, wherein the financial Timeseries values are updated on an ongoing basis through retrieval of data from an external source through a computer network.

19. A computer-based system as defined in claim 1, wherein the complex data object comprises reference information that enables the computer-based system to retrieve data from a remote computer system operably linked to the computer-based system through a computer network, said reference information being interpreted by the scanning means to evaluate the value of said reference information prior to being evaluated by the evaluating means.

20. A computer-based system as defined in claim 1, wherein the visual representation comprises:

at least one complex data object representing a variable capable of holding a scalar value; and

at least one complex data object representing a function within the lexicon of a scripting language supported by the scanning means and the evaluating means.

21. A computer-based system as defined in claim 20, wherein the first formula scanning means generates values comprising initiation of procedures executed on a remote computer system operably linked to the computer-based system through a computer network.

22. A computer-readable medium comprising computer program code, wherein said computer program code, in combination with a computer system, produces a data processing system as defined in claims 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, or 21.

23. A method of data processing, utilizing a computer-based system, said system being suitable for performing analytical operations on complex data objects and being extensible to recognize and operate upon new data object types, the method comprising the steps of:

displaying a visual presentation to a user, the visual presentation including at least one matrix, the at least one matrix including columns, rows and cells, the cells being formed at intersections of the columns and the rows, each cell representing an object, at least one cell representing a complex data object, said complex data object corresponding to a representation in data of characteristics of a financial instrument;

associating objects and formulas with the cells, each object having an object type, each formula receiving at least one object as an argument, each formula having at least one operator for operating on the at least one object received as the argument, at least one formula being polymorphic in relation to its ability to perform operations on an object based on the characteristics of said object;

evaluating each formula, the evaluating step including assigning to the at least one operator in each formula one of a plurality of operative expressions selected in accordance with the object type of the at least one object received as the argument of each formula, said evaluating step further including the step of re-evaluating each formula if a value within the at least one object is changed; and

associating a result, obtained during the evaluating step, with each cell associated with each formula operating on the at least one object.

24. A method of data processing as defined in claim 23, wherein the step of associating objects and formulas with the cells includes generating each formula from a user-interactive English sentence query window, the query window receiving user-provided responses corresponding to pre-defined questions, the query window processing the responses received in response to the questions, the query window generating a formula in accordance therewith.

25. A method of data processing as defined in claim 23, further comprising the step of scanning each formula to ensure that each formula conforms to a preferred cell reference syntax processable by the system, the scanning step also translating each formula, not in conformity with the preferred cell reference syntax, to the preferred cell reference syntax.

26. A method of data processing as defined in claim 23, further comprising the step of producing a visually formatted representation of the result generated by the evaluating step, said visually formatted representation being displayed to a user, said visually formatted representation being selected by the user from a defined list of choices of visual formats.

27. A method of data processing as defined in claim 23 further comprising the step of distinguishing the cells by having each cell exhibit a different visual appearance depending on the object type of each object associated therewith.

28. A method of data processing as defined in claim 27, wherein the different visual appearance includes a difference in color.

29. A method of data processing as defined in claim 23 wherein the step of associating objects and formulas with the cells includes loading data from a memory storage unit, the data being associated with an object.

30. A method of data processing as defined in claim 23 further comprising the step of storing each object and each formula associated with each cell.

31. A method of data processing as defined in claim 23 further comprising the step of instructing the system to recognize new objects and new operators.

32. A method of data processing as defined in claim 31, wherein the instructing step is performed by user-programming.

33. A method of data processing as defined in claim 32, wherein the user-programming of the instructing step is performed using a programming language syntax selected from the group consisting of a C-programming language, a Java programming language and a scripting language.

34. A method of data processing as defined in claim 31, wherein the instructing step is further performed by instructing the system to recognize new objects selectable from an external object library.

35. A method of data processing as defined in claim 34, wherein the external object library is selected from the group consisting of a Java class library and a C++ class library.

36. A method of data processing as defined in claim 23 wherein the complex data object comprises a financial Timeseries valuation of a financial instrument and includes values corresponding to the date, time and sales price of said financial instrument.

37. A method of data processing as defined in claim 36, wherein the Timeseries values are updated on an ongoing basis through retrieval of data from an external source through a computer network.

38. A method of data processing as defined in claim 23 wherein the data processing method is implemented through a plurality of computers configured in a client-server computing environment, said client-server computing environment comprising at least one client computer system operably linked through a computer network to at least one server computer system.

39. A method of data processing as defined in claim 38, wherein the at least one client computer system and the at least one server computer system are operably linked through a computer network selected from the group consisting of a local area network, a wide-area network and the Internet.

40. A method of data processing as defined in claim 23 wherein the computer-based system is implemented in a client-server computing environment, and where the step of displaying a visual presentation to the user is performed by a client computer system.