Enhanced Spreadsheet Computing with Finite-Domain Constraint Satisfaction

TL;DR

This paper extends spreadsheet computing to support finite-domain constraint satisfaction, enabling users to solve complex problems visually and declaratively within a familiar spreadsheet environment.

Contribution

It introduces an enhanced spreadsheet system with integrated finite-domain constraint solving and a user-friendly constraint language, broadening spreadsheet applications beyond simple bookkeeping.

Findings

Significantly simplifies development of constraint-based applications.

Demonstrates usability through practical examples.

Enhances spreadsheet paradigm for complex problem solving.

Abstract

The spreadsheet application is among the most widely used computing tools in modern society. It provides excellent usability and usefulness, and it easily enables a non-programmer to perform programming-like tasks in a visual tabular "pen and paper" approach. However, spreadsheets are mostly limited to bookkeeping-like applications due to their mono-directional data flow. This paper shows how the spreadsheet computing paradigm is extended to break this limitation for solving constraint satisfaction problems. We present an enhanced spreadsheet system where finite-domain constraint solving is well supported in a visual environment. Furthermore, a spreadsheet-specific constraint language is constructed for general users to specify constraints among data cells in a declarative and scalable way. The new spreadsheet system significantly simplifies the development of many constraint-based applications using a visual tabular interface. Examples are given to illustrate the usability and usefulness of the extended spreadsheet paradigm. KEYWORDS: Spreadsheet computing, Finite-domain constraint satisfaction, Constraint logic programming