PARAMETERIZING AND WORKING WITH MATH EQUATIONS IN A SPREADSHEET APPLICATION

• US 20170220543A1
• Filed: 12/30/2016
• Published: 08/03/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/02/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Canton, Christian, Campbell, John, Harley, Catherine
• Granted Patent: US 10,515,145 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/111 Mathematical or scientific formatting; Subscripts; Superscripts
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/151 Transformation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/18 of spreadsheets form-filling G06F40/174
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/205 Parsing

Abstract

The present disclosure is directed to a spreadsheet application with an enhanced understanding of mathematical equations using a mathematical engine and a calculation engine. The disclosed spreadsheet application has many enhanced features, such as, but not limited to: analyzing complex equations, identifying dependencies, converting mathematical notation to spreadsheet notation, connecting variables in an equation to other cells of the spreadsheet, solving or simplifying equations, recommending different display representations of data, and a providing a math display mode.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for connecting one or more variables of a math equation stored in a cell of a spreadsheet with data stored in other cells of the spreadsheet, the method comprising:

receiving the math equation, wherein the math equation includes a variable;

for the variable, receiving a reference to a second cell as an input parameter; and

substituting the variable with data stored in the second cell.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the second cell further includes a second math equation, the second math equation including a second variable.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

for the second variable, receiving a reference to a third cell as an input parameter; and

substituting the second variable with data stored in the third cell.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

wherein the math equation further includes a second variable;

for the second variable, receiving a reference to a third cell as an input parameter; and

substituting the second variable with data stored in the third cell.

5. The method claim 1, wherein a calculation engine of the spreadsheet application performs the substitutions.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the reference to the second cell further comprises receiving the reference to a portion of the second cell.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the portion of the second cell further comprises a reference to a portion of an equation stored in the second cell.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

based on substituting the variable with data stored in the second cell, solving the math equation to a solution.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein solving the math equation is performed by a math engine of the spreadsheet application.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising using an evaluation user experience to solve the math equation.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the solution is provided at the evaluation user experience.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the evaluation user experience displays each step for solving the math equation.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein the solution replaces the math equation stored in the cell of the spreadsheet.

14. A system comprising:

at least one processing unit; and

at least one memory storing computer executable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processing unit, cause the system to perform a method for displaying dependencies among cells of a spreadsheet, the method comprising;

receiving the math equation at a first cell of the spreadsheet, wherein the math equation includes a variable;

for the variable, receiving a reference to a second cell as an input parameter, wherein the second cell stores data; and

displaying a dependency from the first cell to the second cell.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein displaying the dependency comprises displaying an arrow from the first cell to the second cell.

16. The system of claim 14, further comprising:

wherein the data comprises a second math equation including a second variable;

wherein receiving a reference to a second cell as an input parameter includes receiving a reference to the second variable as the input parameter; and

displaying a dependency from the variable to the second variable.

17. The system of claim 14, further comprising:

wherein the data comprises a second math equation including a second variable;

for the second variable, receiving a second reference to a third cell as an input parameter, wherein the third cell stores data; and

displaying a second dependency from the second cell to the third cell.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein displaying the dependency and displaying the second dependency are displayed simultaneously.

19. A system comprising:

at least one processing unit; and

at least one memory storing computer executable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processing unit, cause the system to perform a method for translating equations written in mathematical notation to spreadsheet notation, the method comprising;

receiving an equation at a cell of the spreadsheet, the equation comprising two or more elements;

identifying each element of the equation

determining whether at least one element of the equation is written in mathematical notation

based on a determination that at least one element of the equation is written in mathematical notation, translating each of the at least one element into spreadsheet notation; and

replacing each of the at least one element written in mathematical notation with the translated spreadsheet notation.

20. The system of claim 19, further comprising:

wherein spreadsheet notation includes at least one of;

a cell reference and a spreadsheet operator.

21. A computer-implemented method for receiving an equation in a math display mode of a spreadsheet application, the method comprising:

receiving, at an equation user interface, a math equation;

parsing the math equation; and

displaying the math equation in a cell of a spreadsheet.

22. The computer-implemented method of claim 21, further comprising:

wherein the equation includes at least one variable;

receiving, for the at least one variable, one or more values; and

displaying a solution to the equation.

23. The computer-implemented method of claim 22, wherein displaying the solution to the equation further comprises displaying each step of the solution.