Type-Safe Evolution of Spreadsheets

• Type: Article in International Conference Proceedings Book
• Date: 2011

Authors

Cunha, J (Author) Other; Visser, J (Author) Other; Alves, T (Author) Other; Saraiva, J (Author) Other

Conference proceedings International

Title: FUNDAMENTAL APPROACHES TO SOFTWARE ENGINEERING

Pages: 186-201

14th European Joint Conferences on Theory and Practice of Software

Saarbrucken, GERMANY, MAR 26-APR 03, 2011

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 16 Citations

Scopus - 20 Citations

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-002-YM6

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-19811-3_14

Abstract (EN): Spreadsheets are notoriously error-prone. To help avoid the introduction of errors when changing spreadsheets, models that capture the structure and interdependencies of spreadsheets at a conceptual level have been proposed. Thus, spreadsheet evolution can be made safe within the confines of a model. As in any other model/instance setting, evolution may not only require changes at the instance level but also at the model level. When model changes are required, the safety of instance evolution can not be guarded by the model alone. We have designed an appropriate representation of spreadsheet models, including the fundamental notions of formulteand references. For these models and their instances, we have designed coupled transformation rules that cover specific spreadsheet evolution steps, such as the insertion of columns in all occurrences of a repeated block of cells. Each model-level transformation rule is coupled with instance level migration rules from the source to the target model and vice versa. These coupled rules can be composed to create compound transformations at the model level inducing compound transformations at the instance level. This approach guarantees safe evolution of spreadsheets even when models change.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 16