Using constraints to diagnose faulty spreadsheets

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2015

Authors

Rui Abreu (Author) FEUP; Birgit Hofer (Author) Other; Alexandre Perez (Author) Other; Franz Wotawa (Author) Other

Journal

Title: Software Quality Journal

Vol. 23

Pages: 297-322

ISSN: 0963-9314

Publisher: Springer Nature

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 15 Citations

Scopus - 17 Citations

Scientific classification

FOS: Natural sciences > Computer and information sciences

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-00A-99D

DOI: 10.1007/s11219-014-9236-4

Abstract (EN): Spreadsheets can be viewed as a highly flexible programming environment for end users. Spreadsheets are widely adopted for decision making and may have a serious economical impact for the business. However, spreadsheets are staggeringly prone to errors. Hence, approaches for aiding the process of pinpointing the faulty cells in a spreadsheet are of great value. We present a constraint-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. Therefore, we convert the spreadsheet and a test case to a constraint satisfaction problem. We perform an empirical evaluation with 78 spreadsheets from different sources, where we demonstrate that our approach is light-weight and efficient. From our experimental results, we conclude that ConBug helps end users to pinpoint faulty cells.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 26