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CMU-CS-05-150
Computer Science Department
School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University
CMU-CS-05-150
Using Objects of Measurement
to Detect Spreadsheet Errors
Michael J. Coblenz
July 2005
Senior Honors Thesis
Also appears as Human-Computer Interaction Institute
Technical Report CMU-HCII-05-102
CMU-CS-05-150.pdf
Keywords: Spreadsheets, spreadsheet errors, unit systems, spreadsheet
languages
There are many common errors in spreadsheets that tradtional spreadsheet
systems do not help users find. This paper presents a statically-typed
spreadsheet language that adds additional information about the objects
that spreadsheet values represent. By annotating values with both
units and labels, users denote both the system of measurement in which the
values are expressed as well as the properties of the objects to which the
values refer. This information is used during comptuation to detect some
invalid computations and allow users to identify properties of
resulting values.
23 pages
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