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Method and implementation for referencing of dynamic data within spreadsheet formulas

  • US 7,415,481 B2
  • Filed: 09/30/2004
  • Issued: 08/19/2008
  • Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2004
  • Status: Expired due to Fees
First Claim
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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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