Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Joseph John McDaid

Johnny S Campbell

Christian Canton

Christopher John Gross

James Squires Masson

Keyur Rahul Patel

Arturo Goicochea Hoefken

Benjamin Edward Rampson

Andrew James Becker

Marc Manuel Johannes Brockschmidt

Juliana Patricia Vicente Franco

Vikas Yadav

Sneha Khullar

Sjoerd Roelof De Jong

Andrew William Stegmaier

Robert David Ohn Tinn

John S Campbell

Brian M Jones

Andrew Donald Gordon

Michelle Elena Keslin

Su-Piao Bill Wu

John Herbert Martin Williams

Alexander Yuryevich Novokhodko

Guido Van Rossum

Su-Piao Wu

Technology is disclosed herein for integrating native and non-native dependencies in a spreadsheet hosted by a spreadsheet application. In an implementation, a computing apparatus identifies a formula in a first cell of a spreadsheet which includes a non-native argument. The computing apparatus identifies a dependency between the first cell and a second cell created by the non-native argument. The computing apparatus limits recalculations of the spreadsheet based at least on the dependency. In an implementation, absent any other dependencies between the first cell and other cells, the first cell is excluded from recalculations triggered by changes to the other cells and included in recalculations triggered by the second cell. In an implementation, a direct or indirect dependency is created by, respectively, an explicit or implicit reference to the second cell in the non-native argument. In some implementations, the formula is native to the spreadsheet application hosting the spreadsheet.

Integrating non-native dependencies in spreadsheet applications

An enhanced integration of spreadsheet environments and external environments is disclosed herein that allows users to enter non-native statements directly into the cells of a worksheet so that external resources can be applied with respect to their values. In addition, a security model is disclosed whereby external functions referenced in the cells of a worksheet are executed in the context of a runtime environment that is secured apart from the spreadsheet application that hosts the worksheet. Various enhancements to the user experience are also disclosed that allow users to enter non-native statements in line with respect to the functional syntax that forms the basis of spreadsheet formulas.

Enhanced integration of spreadsheets with external environments

A system for provenance aware editing for propagating edits back to spreadsheets is provided. The system receives an indication of an operation to be performed at an output location. The operation indicates one or more input locations on a spreadsheet that each provides an input value. The input values are accessed and tagged with their corresponding input location on the spreadsheet. Based on the operation and the input value from each of the one or more input locations, the system derives and displays the result at the output location. A user edit to the result is received at the output location, which causes transmission of a propagation request to change the input value at one or more of the tagged input locations. Using where-provenance associated with the tagged input locations, the system propagates the user edit to one or more of the tagged input locations.

Provenance aware editing for spreadsheets

A formula abstraction system is described. The system includes detecting a user-generated formula in a cell of a spreadsheet document, generating a graphical user interface that queries entries of a custom function based on the user-generated formula, forming the custom function by abstracting the user-generated formula to the custom function based on the entries, and storing the custom function in a function library of the spreadsheet document. The custom function applies the user-generated formula in a user-selected cell of the spreadsheet document.

Abstraction of formulas into reusable functions

Systems, methods, and software are disclosed herein for enhancing functions and formulas in spreadsheets. A computing apparatus detects a beginning of a formula in a cell of a spreadsheet. In response to detecting the beginning of the formula, the computing apparatus identifies one or more vector representations of a context of the cell and supplies the one or more vector representations as input to one or more machine learning models. The one or more machine learning models produce output comprising one or more suggested functions for the formula and one or more suggested operands, which the computing apparatus presents in a user interface to the spreadsheet.

Suggested functions for formulas in spreadsheets

Systems, methods, and software are disclosed herein for enhancing functions and formulas in spreadsheets. A computing apparatus detects a beginning of a formula in a cell of a spreadsheet. In response to detecting the beginning of the formula, the computing apparatus identifies a vector representation of a context of the cell and supplies the vector representation as input to one or more machine learning models. The one or more machine learning models produce output comprising one or more suggested functions for the formula and one or more suggested operands, which the computing apparatus presents in a user interface to the spreadsheet.

Form-based formula editing in spreadsheets

In non-limiting examples of the present disclosure, systems, methods and devices for interacting with data in a productivity application are presented. A plurality of values associated with the productivity application may be analyzed to determine whether they include a value that can be added to a set comprising a plurality of values with a set data type upon which the productivity application can execute a plurality of set operations. An indication to add at least one of the analyzed values as a member of the set may be received. At least one of the analyzed values may be added as a member of the set. An indication to perform a set operation associated with the set may be received and performed, and the result of the performed set operation may be displayed on a productivity application user interface.

Identification of sets and manipulation of set data in productivity applications

Aspects of the present disclosure relate to systems and methods for automatically constructing a new formula based upon an existing formula. Various methods are employed to analyze an existing formula in order to determine an intent. Once the intent is determined, a new formula may be constructed that satisfies the intent of the existing formula. Further aspects relate to validating the new formula to ensure it produces the same result as the existing formula which it is intended to replace. Various user interface elements are also disclosed which may be employed to provide the newly constructed formulas to users of an application. The various aspects to disclosed herein may be performed by an application, such as a spreadsheet application, performed in real-time, or provided as a remote service.

Constructing new formulas through auto replacing functions

The present disclosure provides a novel approach for creating and referencing arrays as implemented in a spreadsheet application. Aspects of the present disclosure include, but are not limited to: referencing arrays, creating dynamic arrays, collapsing values of an array into a single cell, spilling values of an array to a table, referencing one or more values in collapsed arrays, visually indicating no spill errors while maintaining calculation capabilities thereon, and implicit intersection of data.

Growing community of inventors

Seattle, WA, United States of America

Joseph John McDaid