Method and implementation for referencing of dynamic data within spreadsheet formulas
First Claim
1. A method, executed in a computer system, for referring to a set of data within a spreadsheet application, comprising:
- receiving one or more semantic designations, wherein the one or more semantic designations describe one or more items of data in a data structure;
automatically creating a structural reference to the data structure, wherein the structural reference is an unbounded number of cells;
associating the one or more semantic designations with the structural reference, wherein associating the one or more semantic designations with the structural reference comprises at least one of the following;
producing a set of context information from a user input semantic designation including a specified syntax, andemploying the structural reference in at least one formula, wherein the spreadsheet application automatically maps the structural reference to the data structure;
determining when context information in the spreadsheet is proximate the data;
when context information is proximate the data, providing a context for evaluating which cells contain the data and which cells contain a data label and updating the structural reference wherein the label and data remained linked;
when the data is stored in a database, determining ambiguity within the data, wherein the ambiguity arises because the one or more semantic designations contain duplicate captions;
when ambiguity within the data is due to the one or more semantic designations containing duplicate captions, disambiguating the one or more semantic designations by use of a modifier, thereby creating a modified semantic designation;
storing the association between the one or more semantic designations or the modified semantic designation and the structural reference.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention relates to a new type of structured name within a spreadsheet program that allows users to refer to tables, columns of data within tables, headers of tables, totals from tables, PivotTables®, and portions of PivotTable® data by the data'"'"'s headers. Embodiments of the present invention comprise a method for referring to a set of data that comprises receiving one or more semantic designations, wherein the one or more semantic designations name a set of context information that describes one or more items of data in a data structure, automatically creating a structural reference, and associating the context information with the structural reference. Other embodiments of the present invention relate to an interaction with a user interface for displaying on a display device a structural reference to data in a spreadsheet that comprises receiving one or more semantic designations from the user that refer to one or more elements of the data structure, creating a structural reference to the elements of the data structure, and displaying the structural reference as a collection of the one or more semantic designations.
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Citations
31 Claims
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1. A method, executed in a computer system, for referring to a set of data within a spreadsheet application, comprising:
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receiving one or more semantic designations, wherein the one or more semantic designations describe one or more items of data in a data structure; automatically creating a structural reference to the data structure, wherein the structural reference is an unbounded number of cells; associating the one or more semantic designations with the structural reference, wherein associating the one or more semantic designations with the structural reference comprises at least one of the following; producing a set of context information from a user input semantic designation including a specified syntax, and employing the structural reference in at least one formula, wherein the spreadsheet application automatically maps the structural reference to the data structure; determining when context information in the spreadsheet is proximate the data; when context information is proximate the data, providing a context for evaluating which cells contain the data and which cells contain a data label and updating the structural reference wherein the label and data remained linked; when the data is stored in a database, determining ambiguity within the data, wherein the ambiguity arises because the one or more semantic designations contain duplicate captions; when ambiguity within the data is due to the one or more semantic designations containing duplicate captions, disambiguating the one or more semantic designations by use of a modifier, thereby creating a modified semantic designation; storing the association between the one or more semantic designations or the modified semantic designation and the structural reference. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A computer storage medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon, the computer-executable instructions for performing a computer-executable method for referring to a set of data within a spreadsheet application, the method comprising:
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receiving an application formula as input into the spreadsheet application, wherein the application formula includes one or more arguments; receiving one or more semantic designations, wherein the one or more semantic designations describe one or more items of data in a first data structure, the one or more arguments of the application formula include the one or more semantic designations; automatically creating a structural reference to the data structure; associating the one or more semantic designations with the structural reference, wherein associating the one or more semantic designations with the structural reference comprises at least one of the following; producing a set of context information from a user input semantic designation including a specified syntax, and employing the structural reference in at least one formula, wherein the spreadsheet application automatically maps the structural reference to the data structure; determining when context information in the spreadsheet is proximate the data; when context information is proximate the data, providing a context for evaluating which cells contain the data and which cells contain a data label and updating the structural reference wherein the label and data remained linked; when the data is stored in a database, determining ambiguity within the data, wherein the ambiguity arises because the one or more semantic designations contain duplicate captions; when ambiguity within the data is due to the one or more semantic designations containing duplicate captions, disambiguating the one or more semantic designations by use of a modifier, thereby creating a modified semantic designation; storing the association between the one or more semantic designations or the modified semantic designation and the structural reference; receiving one or more changes to the one or more items of data; determining a new data structure referred to by the one or more semantic designations, wherein the new data structure includes the one or more items of data and the one or more changes to the one or more items of data; in response to determining a new data structure, automatically creating a new structural reference associated with the one or more semantic designations wherein the new structural reference includes the one or more items of data and the one or more changes to the one or more items of data in the new data structure retrieving one or more items of data from the new data structure referred to by the new structural reference; executing the application formula with one or more items of data from the new data structure to create a result; and displaying the result. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
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30. A method executable in a computer system for displaying, on a display device, a reference to data in a spreadsheet, the method comprising:
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receiving one or more semantic designations from a user that describe one or more elements of a data structure; creating a structural reference, associated with the one or more semantic designations, to the elements of the data structure, wherein creating the structural reference to the elements of the data structure comprises at least one of the following; producing a set of context information from a user input semantic designation including a particular syntax, and employing the structural reference in at least one formula, wherein the spreadsheet application automatically maps the structural reference to the data structure; determining when context information in the spreadsheet is proximate the data; when context information is proximate the data, providing a context for evaluating which cells contain the data and which cells contain a data label and updating the structural reference wherein the label and data remained linked; when the data is stored in a database, determining ambiguity within the data, wherein the ambiguity arises because the one or more semantic designations contain duplicate captions; when ambiguity within the data is due to the one or more semantic designations containing duplicate captions, disambiguating the one or more semantic designations by use of a modifier, thereby creating a modified semantic designation; displaying, on the display device, the structural reference as a collection of the one or more semantic designations or the modified semantic designation; receiving one or more changes to the one or more elements of the data structure; creating a new structural reference; and displaying on the display device, the new structural reference as the collection of the one or more semantic designations. - View Dependent Claims (31)
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Specification