Debugging Spreadsheets: A CSP-based Approach

• Type: Article in International Conference Proceedings Book
• Date: 2012

Authors

Rui Abreu (Author) FEUP; Andre Riboira (Author) Other; Franz Wotawa (Author) Other

Conference proceedings International

Title: 23RD IEEE INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON SOFTWARE RELIABILITY ENGINEERING WORKSHOPS (ISSRE 2012)

Pages: 159-164

23rd IEEE International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering Workshops (ISSREW)

Dallas, TX, NOV 27-30, 2012

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 6 Citations

Scopus - 8 Citations

Scientific classification

FOS: Engineering and technology > Electrical engineering, Electronic engineering, Information engineering

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-005-43H

DOI: 10.1109/issrew.2012.31

Abstract (EN): Despite being staggeringly error prone, spreadsheets can be viewed as a highly flexible end-users programming environment. As a consequence, spreadsheets are widely adopted for decision making, and may have a serious economical impact for the business. Hence, approaches for aiding the process of pinpointing the faulty cells in a spreadsheet are of great value. We present a constrain-based approach, CONBUG, for debugging spreadsheets. The approach takes as input a (faulty) spreadsheet and a test case that reveals the fault and computes a set of diagnosis candidates for the debugging problem we are trying to solve. To compute the set of diagnosis candidates we convert the spreadsheet and test case to a constraint satisfaction problem. From our experimental results, we conclude that CONBUG can be of added value for the end user to pinpoint faulty cells.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 6