Spreadsheet

Example of a spreadsheet holding data about a group of audio tracks

Introduction:

As deep as I dug into the advancements, I became interested in what ease Artificial intelligence can bring to our daily lives. I always have had this determination to create robots that can function in such a way that they can help old age people who can’t walk and have problems using their hands. I believe in creating such a development that can be helpful and go along with my interests. Since high school, I have always been curious of what is the algorithm of data or material uploaded and used over the internet, and the answer was programming. I am Abdul Samad, an AI enthusiast, born on October 9th, 2004, in Multan-Pakistan. I was brought up in a very traditional city with having modest culture. People here live a simple life and are contented with minimum exposure to technology. However, I have always been an aspirant of the latest technology and amazing research on AI for as long as I can remember. My academic journey started pursuing science subjects in my Matriculation in 2021 which I completed from the Board of Secondary Education Multan with 94% marks. Later, I enrolled in an Intermediate pre-engineering group from the same board, and I graduated from this program in 2023 with 59.4% marks. Apart from studies, I like to invest my spare time while studying about latest articles on information and technology. I want to pursue my passion for working as a professional AI developer. Therefore, I decided to apply to Australia to get better opportunities to showcase and polish my talent and inborn interests.

Why Artificial Intelligence and Autonomous Systems?

What particularly interests me about Artificial Intelligence is just economic associations can utilize AI to figure out which exchanges are probably going to be deceitful, carry out speedy and accurate credit scoring, and robotize tedious information on the board responsibilities. AI, data science, and machine learning can help you understand how these technologies are changing the business world. AI and Autonomous Systems are designed to face complex problems. Learning to develop and implement these systems allows you to create solutions that enhance efficiency and effectiveness in various industries. You can also understand how you can add value to your business decisions by transforming data into actionable insights.

My essential purpose for guarantee great learning in Programmed reasoning and Data science methods. I'm looking forward to concentrating on inside and out modules on Techniques for Machine Learning, getting a handle on the instruments for creating successful AI arrangements, and drawing in with the apparatuses for cutting-edge, Systems analysis and design and machine learning jobs are some of the highest-paid roles in the tech world. Graduates in this field often find diverse and high-paying job opportunities.

Why Australia?

Australia is a leading country for providing a variety of study options for international students. According to my research, Australia is the 3rd most popular destination for international students behind only the United Kingdom and The United States of America. Most importantly, Australia is known for its absorbing charm, not just for its immaculate sandy seashores and stunning wildlife but also for its worldwide perceived school system. The nation brags an excellent variety of instructive establishments, guaranteeing that understudies like me approach various scholarly projects and specializations. Besides, Australia is focused on furnishing top-level schooling with the additional motivator of liberal grants, further improving its allure.

Courses offered by Australian Universities, from preparatory to postgraduate level are flexible, equipped with a global perspective, and are recognized worldwide. Moreover, as vibrant as it is, Australia offers a fresh and different perspective in education mainly because its dynamics are diverse. Moreover, universities in Australia, just like any other university in the developed world, tend to promote practical learning. Students seemingly have a lot more personal space to improvise and can carry out their projects that might turn out to be something very big. It’s a multicultural country which is a good thing to learn about different cultures in one place. Moreover, tuition fees are considerably low compared to other competitive nations – the UK and USA. Another reason for choosing Australia for higher education is that living expenses are reasonable, but the quality of living standards is quite high when compared with other nations. My decision to forego Western European nations was affected by my misgiving about the language boundary, as I know English and its way of life. The possibility of adjusting to an alternate semantic and social milieu appeared overwhelming. Besides, Australia is a more practical choice than the USA and the UK

In cumulative, my choice to seek after my high-level examinations in Australia is supported by its remarkable instructive open doors, social variety, well-being, and the opportunity to investigate the immense excellence of the landform. Australia's understanding of quality training and its warm hug of worldwide understudies makes it the best objective for my scholar and self-improvement.

Why not Pakistan?

In Pakistan, few universities offer degrees in Artificial Intelligence, and the quality of education specifically in this field is not as good as universities in countries like Australia, the UK, the USA, and Germany. Pakistan education offers learning that is more academic and having already attained a background knowledge of IT, I feel that purely hypothetical learning won’t help me succeed as a professional. While searching for programs that would assist with laying out a plan for my future undertakings, I ran over several colleges that offered only wolf of data innovation in computerized reasoning in any case, while looking at these colleges based on the educational program, malleability in learning, understudy base, expense design, and openness; I viewed Australia as marking all crates for me.

The Australian education system upgrades modern thinking, encourages creativity, and fosters independent thought, aligning with my longing to approach challenges and prospects with an open and creative mindset. These aspects combined with Australia's cultural diversity and the chance to experience a different way of life, make it the ideal setting for my educational passage and personal development.

Why Murdoch university?

Murdoch University has gained international recognition for its academic excellence. Ranked among the world's top 100 young universities according to the ranking in 2017, it carries a distinguished reputation. Murdoch was among my top choices for additional examinations. I accept I am superbly fortunate to get a proposal letter as the school furnishes you with choices in the Intelligence Innovation and Institution program. I achieved that a degree program in Information technology would be the ideal result for me to get signed up for Murdoch as it has been recognized for its glory and a great opportunity for growth all over the world that the substitute wishes to get. What mainly drew me to Murdoch is its glorious Perth campus, sprawling over 227 hectares of native Australian bushland. This unique setting, streaming with native flora and fauna, promises a truly Australian experience that enhances the educational journey. I also explored other universities in Australia like Curtin University, Macquarie University, University of Wollongong, and Swinburne University. but when I compare this with Murdoch, it has a Brilliance in Research rating of well above world standard, which is an attractive factor for pursuing me to Murdoch. Additionally, I will benefit from the university's strong ties to business and direct projects that focus on in-depth analysis of an issue relevant to IT. Moreover, Murdoch is observed for practicing critical thinking and systematic skills, cultivating an evidence-based and scientific method for problem-solving. This approach equips students to tackle challenges with confidence and rigor. Every student dream about getting registered in an institute that can surround their career in a way that turns their future life and goals.  I feel satisfied and secure that my career at Murdoch can help me fulfill my ambitions of chasing a dream to bring about a revolution in technology.

Why Perth?

I found Perth captivating and reasonable for me as it is the capital city of Western Australia. Perth is one of the major urban areas in Australia, it is well-acquainted with top-class schooling and advances. Perth is home to well-regarded universities and associations that offer high-quality IT programs. Institutions such as Curtin University, the University of Western Australia, and Murdoch University have strong IT departments with experienced faculty. Universities in Perth offer courses and progressions related to AI, machine learning, and data science. These educational proposals contribute to building skilled workers in the field of AI. Furthermore, Perth is recognized for its excellent public transportation system, simplifying commuting and confirming accessibility to various parts of the city. The affordability of accommodations and dining options in Perth, relative to cities like Sydney and Melbourne, is also a major advantage.

Course structure:

The Bachelor of Information Technology (Artificial Intelligence and Autonomous Systems) is a undergraduate degree program that focuses on the practical application of technology  skills and knowledge. It is designed to provide students with industry-relevant training and experience to enhance their engineering practice and employ-ability.

The Bachelor of Information Technology has eight majors that recognize the breadth of skills and roles in the IT industry. The course is flexible in that it allows students to choose up to two majors, a major and two minors, or a major, a co-major, and options. Majors include Artificial Intelligence and Automation, Business Information Systems, Computer Science, Cyber Security and Forensics, Games Technology, and Internetworking and Network Security, Games Software Design and Production, and Mobile and Web Application Development.Typically, a Bachelor of IT program covers a broad range of topics related to information technology. Here are some common components.

Major		24 credit points
MJ-AIA	Artificial Intelligence and Autonomous Systems	24
	OR
MJ-BUIS	Business Information Systems	24
	OR
MJ-CMSC	Computer Science	24
	OR
MJ-CSF	Cyber Security and Forensics	24
	OR
MJ-GTEC	Games Technology	24
	OR
MJ-INS	Internetworking and Network Security	24
	OR
MJ-GSDP	Games Software Design and Production	27
	OR
MJ-MAWAD	Mobile and Web Application Development	24

Future plane:

After completing my studies, I intend to get back to Pakistan as it is the place where my foundations lie. It is necessary for me to take care of my family and to support my family as they have been supporting me since my childhood. I would also like to make use of my degree in Pakistan, and I will try to create and improve opportunities for the youth in the technology field. Pakistan now is lacking a lot in technology and although they have great concepts and ideas in this field, they cannot achieve them as they are deficient in good skills and because they lack a lot of resources. I plan to utilize my skills in Pakistan so that I can make a change in the industry and create more chances for employment. With my degree focused on IT from abroad, I will have the chance to work with the government of Pakistan and other private organizations My targeting firms would be FIA (Federal Investigation Agency), and Net Sol, Systems Limited. I will be expecting a salary of PKR 200,000 to 250,000 per month after getting enough savings and experience to create a small company of my own. My company would aim to create machine brains that can closely relate to and interact with humans.

With an Australian IT degree in hand, it will help me in my home country as The World Economic Forum’s Future of Work Report 2020 predicts that by 2025, the job with the top demand and growth will be that of a Data Scientist. I want to serve up my country in every way feasible. I must return to put my learning into practice in my own country. The young generations like us need to utilize our skills and knowledge to enhance the development of the country. After growing up here, we need to have responsibilities toward our country. I believe with dedication and hard work; one can achieve anything sooner or later.

Family background:

As much as I want to visit Australia, I have no tactics to settle there because I have strong family ties in my home country, Pakistan. I am a part of a loving and caring family that consists of my parents, and two younger brothers. My mother is a housewife, I have a special bond with her as I have spent a lot of time with her. My family has been my firm fountain of support all through my excursion and I can't say thanks to them enough. While staying away from them for quite a while will be testing, I am strong enough to put forth this experience worth the attempt. In this way, after finishing the program, I will be going back to Pakistan. I'm the main folk intending to concentrate abroad, so it is my proper commitment to get back to my family and deal with those by monetarily supporting them and investing energy with them.

finances

For the financial details, my father will sponsor my education in Australia.

He is a landlord. He is earning a pronounced income from the production of his agricultural land. My family has pledged all forms of support for my studies and can easily afford the cost of teaching me abroad. I am blessed to have a supportive family eager to help me build my career. I have attached my father’s bank statement with a cumulative amount of 10.2 million PKR. My father will also be paying the rest of the tuition fees and will bear the costs of travel, accommodation, food, and general expenses during my time in Australia. I assure you that I have sufficient funds to pay my fees in Australia. I will be attaching all the relevant documents for your reference.

Accommodation:

As an international student, you can choose between multiple accommodation options, including living at the Murdoch University Village, in a shared or privately rented house, or a homestay experience.

I would love to stay in Murdoch Village. Located at our Perth campus, classes are right on your doorstep, with direct access to public transport and a range of local shops and on-campus amenities. The Village has stylish, fully furnished apartments for rent, with options to suit almost any budget.

The Village offers a range of facilities, including:

1. Swimming pool

2. Pool Lounge with a pool table, table tennis, and foosball table

3. Rec Room with BBQs, projection screen, and a communal kitchen

4. Beach volleyball and basketball courts

5. Theatre room with surround sound and projector

6. Movie room with satellite TV

7. Group study rooms

The Village is safe, offering a 24-hour staff presence, with resident staff members living on-site and night-time security patrols. A team of resident assistants is also responsible for organising events and assisting you with your transition to Murdoch. If you're experiencing personal or study problems, accommodation – ranges from around $90 to $150 per week for hostels.

https://www.murdoch.edu.au/study/fees/cost-of-living#:~:text=accommodation%20%E2%80%93%20ranges%20from%20around%20%2490,%E2%80%93%20%24140%2D280%20per%20week.

Visa conditions:

I have read the conditions of visa subclass 500 higher education completely mentioned on https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/ and will abide by the guidelines during my stay:

1. I cannot enter Australia without health insurance and maintain it throughout my stay.

2. I must remain enrolled in registered courses or course providers for at least six months.

3. I should only follow 40 hours of work per fortnight if I do so.

4. I must continue to satisfy the requirements of visa subclass 500 or face penalties that may even lead to deportation.

Declaration:

At this moment, I certify that the information above, which is intended to support demonstrating that I meet the Genuine Student (GS) and Genuine Temporary Entrant (GTE) requirements, is true and correct. I know that if any false and misleading information is found in my application and Statement of Purpose, Murdoch and the Department of Home Affairs have a right to refuse my course and visa application, as applicable.

Sincerely,

ABDUL SAMAD

Basics

LANPAR, available in 1969, was the first electronic spreadsheet on mainframe and time sharing computers. LANPAR was an acronym: LANguage for Programming Arrays at Random. VisiCalc (1979) was the first electronic spreadsheet on a microcomputer, and it helped turn the Apple II computer into a popular and widely used personal computer. Lotus 1-2-3 was the leading spreadsheet when DOS was the dominant operating system. Microsoft Excel now has the largest market share on the Windows and Macintosh platforms. A spreadsheet program is a standard feature of an office productivity suite. In 2006 Google launched a beta release spreadsheet web application, this is currently known as Google Sheets and one of the applications provided in Google Drive.

A spreadsheet consists of a table of cells arranged into rows and columns and referred to by the X and Y locations. X locations, the columns, are normally represented by letters, "A," "B," "C," etc., while rows are normally represented by numbers, 1, 2, 3, etc. A single cell can be referred to by addressing its row and column, "C10". This electronic concept of cell references was first introduced in LANPAR (Language for Programming Arrays at Random) (co-invented by Rene Pardo and Remy Landau) and a variant used in VisiCalc and known as "A1 notation". Additionally, spreadsheets have the concept of a range, a group of cells, normally contiguous. For instance, one can refer to the first ten cells in the first column with the range "A1:A10". LANPAR innovated forward referencing/natural order calculation which didn't re-appear until Lotus 123 and Microsoft's MultiPlan Version 2.

In modern spreadsheet applications, several spreadsheets, often known as worksheets or simply sheets, are gathered together to form a workbook. A workbook is physically represented by a file containing all the data for the book, the sheets, and the cells with the sheets. Worksheets are normally represented by tabs that flip between pages, each one containing one of the sheets, although Numbers changes this model significantly. Cells in a multi-sheet book add the sheet name to their reference, for instance, "Sheet 1!C10". Some systems extend this syntax to allow cell references to different workbooks.

Users interact with sheets primarily through the cells. A given cell can hold data by simply entering it in, or a formula, which is normally created by preceding the text with an equals sign. Data might include the string of text hello world, the number 5 or the date 16-Dec-91. A formula would begin with the equals sign, =5*3, but this would normally be invisible because the display shows the result of the calculation, 15 in this case, not the formula itself. This may lead to confusion in some cases.

The key feature of spreadsheets is the ability for a formula to refer to the contents of other cells, which may, in turn, be the result of a formula. To make such a formula, one replaces a number with a cell reference. For instance, the formula =5*C10 would produce the result of multiplying the value in cell C10 by the number 5. If C10 holds the value 3 the result will be 15. But C10 might also hold its formula referring to other cells, and so on.

The ability to chain formulas together is what gives a spreadsheet its power. Many problems can be broken down into a series of individual mathematical steps, and these can be assigned to individual formulas in cells. Some of these formulas can apply to ranges as well, like the SUM function that adds up all the numbers within a range.

Spreadsheets share many principles and traits of databases, but spreadsheets and databases are not the same things. A spreadsheet is essentially just one table, whereas a database is a collection of many tables with machine-readable semantic relationships. While it is true that a workbook that contains three sheets is indeed a file containing multiple tables that can interact with each other, it lacks the relational structure of a database. Spreadsheets and databases are interoperable—sheets can be imported into databases to become tables within them, and database queries can be exported into spreadsheets for further analysis.

A spreadsheet program is one of the main components of an office productivity suite, which usually also contains a word processor, a presentation program, and a database management system. Programs within a suite use similar commands for similar functions. Usually, sharing data between the components is easier than with a non-integrated collection of functionally equivalent programs. This was particularly an advantage at a time when many personal computer systems used text-mode displays and commands instead of a graphical user interface.

History

Paper spreadsheets

Humans have organized data into tables, that is, grids of columns and rows, since ancient times. The Babylonians used clay tablets to store data as far back as 1800 BCE. Other examples can be found in book-keeping ledgers and astronomical records.

Since at least 1906 the term "spread sheet" has been used in accounting to mean a grid of columns and rows in a ledger. The word "spreadsheet" came from "spread" in its sense of a newspaper or magazine item (text or graphics) that covers two facing pages, extending across the centerfold and treating the two pages as one large page. The compound word 'spread-sheet' came to mean the format used to present book-keeping ledgers—with columns for categories of expenditures across the top, invoices listed down the left margin, and the amount of each payment in the cell where its row and column intersect—which were, traditionally, a "spread" across facing pages of a bound ledger (book for keeping accounting records) or on oversized sheets of paper (termed 'analysis paper') ruled into rows and columns in that format and approximately twice as wide as ordinary paper.

Electronic spreadsheets

Batch spreadsheet report generator BSRG

A batch "spreadsheet" is indistinguishable from a batch compiler with added input data, producing an output report, i.e., a 4GL or conventional, non-interactive, batch computer program. However, this concept of an electronic spreadsheet was outlined in the 1961 paper "Budgeting Models and System Simulation" by Richard Mattessich. The subsequent work by Mattessich (1964a, Chpt. 9, Accounting and Analytical Methods) and its companion volume, Mattessich (1964b, Simulation of the Firm through a Budget Computer Program) applied computerized spreadsheets to accounting and budgeting systems (on mainframe computers programmed in FORTRAN IV). These batch Spreadsheets dealt primarily with the addition or subtraction of entire columns or rows (of input variables), rather than individual cells.

In 1962, this concept of the spreadsheet, called BCL for Business Computer Language, was implemented on an IBM 1130 and in 1963 was ported to an IBM 7040 by R. Brian Walsh at Marquette University, Wisconsin. This program was written in Fortran. Primitive timesharing was available on those machines. In 1968 BCL was ported by Walsh to the IBM 360/67 timesharing machine at Washington State University. It was used to assist in the teaching of finance to business students. Students were able to take information prepared by the professor and manipulate it to represent it and show ratios etc. In 1964, a book entitled Business Computer Language was written by Kimball, Stoffells and Walsh and both the book and program were copyrighted in 1966 and years later that copyright was renewed.

Applied Data Resources had a FORTRAN preprocessor called Empires.

In the late 1960s, Xerox used BCL to develop a more sophisticated version for their timesharing system.

LANPAR spreadsheet compiler

A key invention in the development of electronic spreadsheets was made by Rene K. Pardo and Remy Landau, who filed in 1970 U.S. patent 4,398,249 on a spreadsheet automatic natural order calculation algorithm. While the patent was initially rejected by the patent office as being a purely mathematical invention, following 12 years of appeals, Pardo and Landau won a landmark court case at the Predecessor Court of the Federal Circuit (CCPA), overturning the Patent Office in 1983 — establishing that "something does not cease to become patentable merely because the point of novelty is in an algorithm." However, in 1995 a federal district court ruled the patent unenforceable due to inequitable conduct by the inventors during the application process. The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld that decision in 1996.

The actual software was called LANPAR — LANguage for Programming Arrays at Random. This was conceived and entirely developed in the summer of 1969, following Pardo and Landau's recent graduation from Harvard University. Co-inventor Rene Pardo recalls that he felt that one manager at Bell Canada should not have to depend on programmers to program and modify budgeting forms, and he thought of letting users type out forms in any order and having an electronic computer calculate results in the right order ("Forward Referencing/Natural Order Calculation"). Pardo and Landau developed and implemented the software in 1969.

LANPAR was used by Bell Canada, AT&T, and the 18 operating telephone companies nationwide for their local and national budgeting operations. LANPAR was also used by General Motors. Its uniqueness was Pardo's co-invention incorporating forward referencing/natural order calculation (one of the first "non-procedural" computer languages) as opposed to left-to-right, top to bottom sequence for calculating the results in each cell that was used by VisiCalc, SuperCalc, and the first version of MultiPlan. Without forward referencing/natural order calculation, the user had to refresh the spreadsheet until the values in all cells remained unchanged. Once the cell values stayed constant, the user was assured that there were no remaining forward references within the spreadsheet.

Autoplan/Autotab spreadsheet programming language

In 1968, three former employees from the General Electric computer company headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona set out to start their own software development house. A. Leroy Ellison, Harry N. Cantrell, and Russell E. Edwards found themselves doing a large number of calculations when making tables for the business plans that they were presenting to venture capitalists. They decided to save themselves a lot of effort and wrote a computer program that produced their tables for them. This program, originally conceived as a simple utility for their personal use, would turn out to be the first software product offered by the company that would become known as Capex Corporation. "AutoPlan" ran on GE's Time-sharing service; afterward, a version that ran on IBM mainframes was introduced under the name AutoTab. (National CSS offered a similar product, CSSTAB, which had a moderate timesharing user base by the early 1970s. A major application was opinion research tabulation.)

AutoPlan/AutoTab was not a WYSIWYG interactive spreadsheet program, it was a simple scripting language for spreadsheets. The user defined the names and labels for the rows and columns, then the formulas that defined each row or column. In 1975, Autotab-II was advertised as extending the original to a maximum of "1,500 rows and columns, combined in any proportion the user requires..."

GE Information Services, which operated the time-sharing service, also launched its own spreadsheet system, Financial Analysis Language (FAL), circa 1974. It was later supplemented by an additional spreadsheet language, TABOL, which was developed by an independent author, Oliver Vellacott in the UK. Both FAL and TABOL were integrated with GEIS's database system, DMS.

IBM Financial Planning and Control System

The IBM Financial Planning and Control System was developed in 1976, by Brian Ingham at IBM Canada. It was implemented by IBM in at least 30 countries. It ran on an IBM mainframe and was the first application for financial planning developed with APL that completely hid the programming language from the end-user. Through IBM's VM operating system, it was among the first programs to auto-update each copy of the application as new versions were released. Users could specify simple mathematical relationships between rows and between columns. Compared to any contemporary alternatives, it could support very large spreadsheets. It loaded actual financial planning data drawn from the legacy batch system into each user's spreadsheet monthly. It was designed to optimize the power of APL through object kernels, increasing program efficiency by as much as 50 fold over traditional programming approaches.

APLDOT modeling language

An example of an early "industrial weight" spreadsheet was APLDOT, developed in 1976 at the United States Railway Association on an IBM 360/91, running at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, MD. The application was used successfully for many years in developing such applications as financial and costing models for the US Congress and for Conrail. APLDOT was dubbed a "spreadsheet" because financial analysts and strategic planners used it to solve the same problems they addressed with paper spreadsheet pads.

VisiCalc for the Apple II Personal Computer

VisiCalc running on an Apple II

The concept of spreadsheets became widely known due to VisiCalc, it was developed for the Apple II in 1979 by VisiCorp staff Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston, significantly, it also turned the personal computer from a hobby for computer enthusiasts into a business tool.

VisiCalc was the first spreadsheet that combined many of the essential features of modern spreadsheet applications, such as a WYSIWYG interactive user interface, automatic recalculation, status and formula lines, range copying with relative and absolute references, formula building by selecting referenced cells. Unaware of LANPAR at the time PC World magazine called VisiCalc the first electronic spreadsheet.

Bricklin has spoken of watching his university professor create a table of calculation results on a blackboard. When the professor found an error, he had to tediously erase and rewrite several sequential entries in the table, triggering Bricklin to think that he could replicate the process on a computer, using the blackboard as the model to view results of underlying formulas. His idea became VisiCalc.

VisiCalc went on to become the first "killer application", an application that was so compelling, people would buy a particular computer just to use it. VisiCalc was in no small part responsible for the Apple II's success. The program was later ported to a number of other early computers, notably CP/M machines, the Atari 8-bit family and various Commodore platforms. Nevertheless, VisiCalc remains best known as an Apple II program.

SuperCalc for CP/M

SuperCalc was a spreadsheet application published by Sorcim in 1980, and originally bundled (along with WordStar) as part of the CP/M software package included with the Osborne 1 portable computer. It quickly became the de facto standard spreadsheet for CP/M.

Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet for IBM PC DOS

The introduction of Lotus 1-2-3 in November 1982 accelerated the acceptance of the IBM Personal Computer. It was written especially for IBM PC DOS and had improvements in speed and graphics compared to VisiCalc on the Apple II, this helped it grow in popularity. Lotus 1-2-3 was the leading spreadsheet for several years.

Microsoft Excel for Apple Macintosh and Windows

Microsoft released the first version of Excel for the Apple Macintosh on September 30, 1985, and then ported it to Windows, with the first version being numbered 2.05 (to synchronize with the Macintosh version 2.2) and released in November 1987. Microsoft's Windows 3.x platforms of the early 1990s made it possible for their Excel spreadsheet application to take market share from Lotus. By the time Lotus responded with usable Windows products, Microsoft had begun to assemble their Office suite. By 1995, Excel was the market leader, edging out Lotus 1-2-3, and in 2013, IBM discontinued Lotus 1-2-3 altogether.

Google Sheets, Online, Web-based spreadsheets

See also: List of online spreadsheets

In 2006 Google launched their beta release Google Sheets, a web based spreadsheet application that can be accessed by multiple users from any device type using a compatible web browser, it can be used online and offline (with or without internet connectivity). Google Sheets originated from a web-based spreadsheet application XL2Web developed by 2Web Technologies, combined with DocVerse which enabled multiple-user online collaboration of Office documents.

In 2016 Collabora Online Calc was launched, notable in that the web based spreadsheet could be hosted and integrated into any environment without dependency on a 3rd party for authentication or maintenance. Collabora Online runs LibreOffice kit at its core, which grew from StarOffice that was launched 39 years ago in 1985.

Mainframe spreadsheets

• The Works Records System at ICI developed in 1974 on IBM 370/145
• ExecuCalc, from Parallax Systems, Inc.: Released in late 1982, ExecuCalc was the first mainframe "visi-clone" which duplicated the features of VisiCalc on IBM mainframes with 3270 display terminals. Over 150 copies were licensed (35 to Fortune 500 companies). DP managers were attracted to compatibility and avoiding then-expensive PC purchases (see 1983 Computerworld magazine front page article and advertisement.)

Other spreadsheets

Notable current spreadsheet software:

• Apache OpenOffice Calc is free and open-source.
• Calligra Sheets (formerly KCalc)
• Collabora Online Calc for mobile and desktop apps are free, open-source, cross-platform enterprise-ready editions of LibreOffice.
• Corel Quattro Pro (WordPerfect Office)
• Gnumeric is free and cross-platform, it is part of the GNOME Free Software Desktop Project.
• Kingsoft Spreadsheets
• LibreOffice Calc is free, open-source and cross platform.
• NeoOffice
• Numbers is Apple Inc.'s spreadsheet software, part of iWork.
• PlanMaker (SoftMaker Office)
• Pyspread

Discontinued spreadsheet software:

• 20/20
• 3D-Calc for Atari ST computers
• Framework by Forefront Corporation/Ashton-Tate (1983–84)
• GNU Oleo – A traditional terminal mode spreadsheet for UNIX/UNIX-like systems
• IBM Lotus Symphony (2007)
• Javelin Software
• KCells
• Lucid 3-D
• Lotus Improv
• Lotus Jazz for Macintosh
• Lotus Symphony (1984)
• MultiPlan
• Claris' Resolve (Macintosh)
• Resolver One
• Borland's Quattro Pro
• SC IM (formerly SC - Spreadsheet Calculator)
• SIAG
• SuperCalc
• T/Maker
• Target Planner Calc for CP/M and TRS-DOS
• Trapeze for Macintosh
• Wingz for Macintosh

Other products

Several companies have attempted to break into the spreadsheet market with programs based on very different paradigms. Lotus introduced what is likely the most successful example, Lotus Improv, which saw some commercial success, notably in the financial world where its powerful data mining capabilities remain well respected to this day.

Spreadsheet 2000 attempted to dramatically simplify formula construction, but was generally not successful.

Concepts

The main concepts are those of a grid of cells, called a sheet, with either raw data, called values, or formulas in the cells. Formulas say how to mechanically compute new values from existing values. Values are general numbers, but can also be pure text, dates, months, etc. Extensions of these concepts include logical spreadsheets. Various tools for programming sheets, visualizing data, remotely connecting sheets, displaying cells' dependencies, etc. are commonly provided.

Cells

A "cell" can be thought of as a box for holding data. A single cell is usually referenced by its column and row (C2 would represent the cell containing the value 30 in the example table below). Usually rows, representing the dependent variables, are referenced in decimal notation starting from 1, while columns representing the independent variables use 26-adic bijective numeration using the letters A-Z as numerals. Its physical size can usually be tailored to its content by dragging its height or width at box intersections (or for entire columns or rows by dragging the column- or row-headers).

My Spreadsheet

	A	B	C	D
01	Sales	100000	30000	70000
02	Purchases	25490	30	200

An array of cells is called a sheet or worksheet. It is analogous to an array of variables in a conventional computer program (although certain unchanging values, once entered, could be considered, by the same analogy, constants). In most implementations, many worksheets may be located within a single spreadsheet. A worksheet is simply a subset of the spreadsheet divided for the sake of clarity. Functionally, the spreadsheet operates as a whole and all cells operate as global variables within the spreadsheet (each variable having 'read' access only except its containing cell).

A cell may contain a value or a formula, or it may simply be left empty. By convention, formulas usually begin with = sign.

Values

A value can be entered from the computer keyboard by directly typing into the cell itself. Alternatively, a value can be based on a formula (see below), which might perform a calculation, display the current date or time, or retrieve external data such as a stock quote or a database value.

The Spreadsheet Value Rule

Computer scientist Alan Kay used the term value rule to summarize a spreadsheet's operation: a cell's value relies solely on the formula the user has typed into the cell. The formula may rely on the value of other cells, but those cells are likewise restricted to user-entered data or formulas. There are no 'side effects' to calculating a formula: the only output is to display the calculated result inside its occupying cell. There is no natural mechanism for permanently modifying the contents of a cell unless the user manually modifies the cell's contents. In the context of programming languages, this yields a limited form of first-order functional programming.

Automatic recalculation

A standard of spreadsheets since the 1980s, this optional feature eliminates the need to manually request the spreadsheet program to recalculate values (nowadays typically the default option unless specifically 'switched off' for large spreadsheets, usually to improve performance). Some earlier spreadsheets required a manual request to recalculate since the recalculation of large or complex spreadsheets often reduced data entry speed. Many modern spreadsheets still retain this option.

Recalculation generally requires that there are no circular dependencies in a spreadsheet. A dependency graph is a graph that has a vertex for each object to be updated, and an edge connecting two objects whenever one of them needs to be updated earlier than the other. Dependency graphs without circular dependencies form directed acyclic graphs, representations of partial orderings (in this case, across a spreadsheet) that can be relied upon to give a definite result.

Real-time update

This feature refers to updating a cell's contents periodically with a value from an external source—such as a cell in a "remote" spreadsheet. For shared, Web-based spreadsheets, it applies to "immediately" updating cells another user has updated. All dependent cells must be updated also.

Locked cell

Once entered, selected cells (or the entire spreadsheet) can optionally be "locked" to prevent accidental overwriting. Typically this would apply to cells containing formulas but might apply to cells containing "constants" such as a kilogram/pounds conversion factor (2.20462262 to eight decimal places). Even though individual cells are marked as locked, the spreadsheet data are not protected until the feature is activated in the file preferences.

Data format

A cell or range can optionally be defined to specify how the value is displayed. The default display format is usually set by its initial content if not specifically previously set, so that for example "31/12/2007" or "31 Dec 2007" would default to the cell format of date. Similarly adding a % sign after a numeric value would tag the cell as a percentage cell format. The cell contents are not changed by this format, only the displayed value.

Some cell formats such as "numeric" or "currency" can also specify the number of decimal places.

This can allow invalid operations (such as doing multiplication on a cell containing a date), resulting in illogical results without an appropriate warning.

Cell formatting

Depending on the capability of the spreadsheet application, each cell (like its counterpart the "style" in a word processor) can be separately formatted using the attributes of either the content (point size, color, bold or italic) or the cell (border thickness, background shading, color). To aid the readability of a spreadsheet, cell formatting may be conditionally applied to data; for example, a negative number may be displayed in red.

A cell's formatting does not typically affect its content and depending on how cells are referenced or copied to other worksheets or applications, the formatting may not be carried with the content.

Named cells

Use of named column variables x & y in Microsoft Excel. Formula for y=x² resembles Fortran, and Name Manager shows the definitions of x & y.

In most implementations, a cell, or group of cells in a column or row, can be "named" enabling the user to refer to those cells by a name rather than by a grid reference. Names must be unique within the spreadsheet, but when using multiple sheets in a spreadsheet file, an identically named cell range on each sheet can be used if it is distinguished by adding the sheet name. One reason for this usage is for creating or running macros that repeat a command across many sheets. Another reason is that formulas with named variables are readily checked against the algebra they are intended to implement (they resemble Fortran expressions). The use of named variables and named functions also makes the spreadsheet structure more transparent.

Cell reference

In place of a named cell, an alternative approach is to use a cell (or grid) reference. Most cell references indicate another cell in the same spreadsheet, but a cell reference can also refer to a cell in a different sheet within the same spreadsheet, or (depending on the implementation) to a cell in another spreadsheet entirely, or a value from a remote application.

A typical cell reference in "A1" style consists of one or two case-insensitive letters to identify the column (if there are up to 256 columns: A–Z and AA–IV) followed by a row number (e.g., in the range 1–65536). Either part can be relative (it changes when the formula it is in is moved or copied), or absolute (indicated with $ in front of the part concerned of the cell reference). The alternative "R1C1" reference style consists of the letter R, the row number, the letter C, and the column number; relative row or column numbers are indicated by enclosing the number in square brackets. Most current spreadsheets use the A1 style, some providing the R1C1 style as a compatibility option.

When the computer calculates a formula in one cell to update the displayed value of that cell, cell reference(s) in that cell, naming some other cell(s), causes the computer to fetch the value of the named cell(s).

A cell on the same "sheet" is usually addressed as:

=A1

A cell on a different sheet of the same spreadsheet is usually addressed as:

=SHEET2!A1             (that is; the first cell in sheet 2 of the same spreadsheet).

Some spreadsheet implementations in Excel allow cell references to another spreadsheet (not the currently open and active file) on the same computer or a local network. It may also refer to a cell in another open and active spreadsheet on the same computer or network that is defined as shareable. These references contain the complete filename, such as:

='C:\Documents and Settings\Username\My spreadsheets\[main sheet]Sheet1!A1

In a spreadsheet, references to cells automatically update when new rows or columns are inserted or deleted. Care must be taken, however, when adding a row immediately before a set of column totals to ensure that the totals reflect the values of the additional rows—which they often do not.

A circular reference occurs when the formula in one cell refers—directly, or indirectly through a chain of cell references—to another cell that refers back to the first cell. Many common errors cause circular references. However, some valid techniques use circular references. These techniques, after many spreadsheet recalculations, (usually) converge on the correct values for those cells.

Cell ranges

Likewise, instead of using a named range of cells, a range reference can be used. Reference to a range of cells is typical of the form (A1:A6), which specifies all the cells in the range A1 through to A6. A formula such as "=SUM(A1:A6)" would add all the cells specified and put the result in the cell containing the formula itself.

Sheets

In the earliest spreadsheets, cells were a simple two-dimensional grid. Over time, the model has expanded to include a third dimension, and in some cases a series of named grids, called sheets. The most advanced examples allow inversion and rotation operations which can slice and project the data set in various ways.

Formulas

Animation of a simple spreadsheet that multiplies values in the left column by 2, then sums the calculated values from the right column to the bottom-most cell. In this example, only the values in the A column are entered (10, 20, 30), and the remainder of cells are formulas. Formulas in the B column multiply values from the A column using relative references, and the formula in B4 uses the SUM() function to find the sum of values in the B1:B3 range.

A formula identifies the calculation needed to place the result in the cell it is contained within. A cell containing a formula, therefore, has two display components; the formula itself and the resulting value. The formula is normally only shown when the cell is selected by "clicking" the mouse over a particular cell; otherwise, it contains the result of the calculation.

A formula assigns values to a cell or range of cells, and typically has the format:

=expression

where the expression consists of:

• values, such as 2, 9.14 or 6.67E-11;
• references to other cells, such as, e.g., A1 for a single cell or B1:B3 for a range;
• arithmetic operators, such as +, -, *, /, and others;
• relational operators, such as >=, <, and others; and,
• functions, such as SUM(), TAN(), and many others.

When a cell contains a formula, it often contains references to other cells. Such a cell reference is a type of variable. Its value is the value of the referenced cell or some derivation of it. If that cell in turn references other cells, the value depends on the values of those. References can be relative (e.g., A1, or B1:B3), absolute (e.g., $A$1, or $B$1:$B$3) or mixed row– or column-wise absolute/relative (e.g., $A1 is column-wise absolute and A$1 is row-wise absolute).

The available options for valid formulas depend on the particular spreadsheet implementation but, in general, most arithmetic operations and quite complex nested conditional operations can be performed by most of today's commercial spreadsheets. Modern implementations also offer functions to access custom-build functions, remote data, and applications.

A formula may contain a condition (or nested conditions)—with or without an actual calculation—and is sometimes used purely to identify and highlight errors. In the example below, it is assumed the sum of a column of percentages (A1 through A6) is tested for validity and an explicit message put into the adjacent right-hand cell.

=IF(SUM(A1:A6) > 100, "More than 100%", SUM(A1:A6))

Further examples:

=IF(AND(A1<>"",B1<>""),A1/B1,"") means that if both cells A1 and B1 are not <> empty "", then divide A1 by B1 and display, other do not display anything.

=IF(AND(A1<>"",B1<>""),IF(B1<>0,A1/B1,"Division by zero"),"") means that if cells A1 and B1 are not empty, and B1 is not zero, then divide A1 by B1, if B1 is zero, then display "Division by zero", and do not display anything if either A1 and B1 are empty.

=IF(OR(A1<>"",B1<>""),"Either A1 or B1 show text","") means to display the text if either cells A1 or B1 are not empty.

The best way to build up conditional statements is step by step composing followed by trial and error testing and refining code.

A spreadsheet does not have to contain any formulas at all, in which case it could be considered merely a collection of data arranged in rows and columns (a database) like a calendar, timetable, or simple list. Because of its ease of use, formatting, and hyperlinking capabilities, many spreadsheets are used solely for this purpose.

Functions

Use of user-defined function sq(x) in Microsoft Excel

Spreadsheets usually contain several supplied functions, such as arithmetic operations (for example, summations, averages, and so forth), trigonometric functions, statistical functions, and so forth. In addition there is often a provision for user-defined functions. In Microsoft Excel, these functions are defined using Visual Basic for Applications in the supplied Visual Basic editor, and such functions are automatically accessible on the worksheet. Also, programs can be written that pull information from the worksheet, perform some calculations, and report the results back to the worksheet. In the figure, the name sq is user-assigned, and the function sq is introduced using the Visual Basic editor supplied with Excel. Name Manager displays the spreadsheet definitions of named variables x & y.

Subroutines

Subroutine in Microsoft Excel writes values calculated using x into y.

Functions themselves cannot write into the worksheet but simply return their evaluation. However, in Microsoft Excel, subroutines can write values or text found within the subroutine directly to the spreadsheet. The figure shows the Visual Basic code for a subroutine that reads each member of the named column variable x, calculates its square, and writes this value into the corresponding element of named column variable y. The y column contains no formula because its values are calculated in the subroutine, not on the spreadsheet, and simply are written in.

Remote spreadsheet

Whenever a reference is made to a cell or group of cells that are not located within the current physical spreadsheet file, it is considered as accessing a "remote" spreadsheet. The contents of the referenced cell may be accessed either on the first reference with a manual update or more recently in the case of web-based spreadsheets, as a near real-time value with a specified automatic refresh interval.

Charts

Graph made using Microsoft Excel

Many spreadsheet applications permit charts and graphs (e.g., histograms, pie charts) to be generated from specified groups of cells that are dynamically re-built as cell contents change. The generated graphic component can either be embedded within the current sheet or added as a separate object. To create an Excel histogram, a formula based on the REPT function can be used.

Multi-dimensional spreadsheets

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, first Javelin Software and Lotus Improv appeared. Unlike models in a conventional spreadsheet, they utilized models built on objects called variables, not on data in cells of a report. These multi-dimensional spreadsheets enabled viewing data and algorithms in various self-documenting ways, including simultaneous multiple synchronized views. For example, users of Javelin could move through the connections between variables on a diagram while seeing the logical roots and branches of each variable. This is an example of what is perhaps its primary contribution of the earlier Javelin—the concept of traceability of a user's logic or model structure through its twelve views. A complex model can be dissected and understood by others who had no role in its creation.

In these programs, a time series, or any variable, was an object in itself, not a collection of cells that happen to appear in a row or column. Variables could have many attributes, including complete awareness of their connections to all other variables, data references, and text and image notes. Calculations were performed on these objects, as opposed to a range of cells, so adding two-time series automatically aligns them in calendar time, or in a user-defined time frame. Data were independent of worksheets—variables, and therefore data, could not be destroyed by deleting a row, column, or entire worksheet. For instance, January's costs are subtracted from January's revenues, regardless of where or whether either appears in a worksheet. This permits actions later used in pivot tables, except that flexible manipulation of report tables, was but one of many capabilities supported by variables. Moreover, if costs were entered by week and revenues by month, the program could allocate or interpolate as appropriate. This object design enabled variables and whole models to reference each other with user-defined variable names and to perform multidimensional analysis and massive, but easily editable consolidations.

Trapeze, a spreadsheet on the Mac, went further and explicitly supported not just table columns, but also matrix operators.

Logical spreadsheets

Spreadsheets that have a formula language based upon logical expressions, rather than arithmetic expressions are known as logical spreadsheets. Such spreadsheets can be used to reason deductively about their cell values.

Programming issues

Just as the early programming languages were designed to generate spreadsheet printouts, programming techniques themselves have evolved to process tables (also known as spreadsheets or matrices) of data more efficiently in the computer itself.

End-user development

Spreadsheets are a popular end-user development tool. EUD denotes activities or techniques in which people who are not professional developers create automated behavior and complex data objects without significant knowledge of a programming language. Many people find it easier to perform calculations in spreadsheets than by writing the equivalent sequential program. This is due to several traits of spreadsheets.

• They use spatial relationships to define program relationships. Humans have highly developed intuitions about spaces, and of dependencies between items. Sequential programming usually requires typing line after line of text, which must be read slowly and carefully to be understood and changed.
• They are forgiving, allowing partial results and functions to work. One or more parts of a program can work correctly, even if other parts are unfinished or broken. This makes writing and debugging programs easier, and faster. Sequential programming usually needs every program line and character to be correct for a program to run. One error usually stops the whole program and prevents any result. Though this user-friendliness is benefit of spreadsheet development, it often comes with increased risk of errors.
• Modern spreadsheets allow for secondary notation. The program can be annotated with colors, typefaces, lines, etc. to provide visual cues about the meaning of elements in the program.
• Extensions that allow users to create new functions can provide the capabilities of a functional language.
• Extensions that allow users to build and apply models from the domain of machine learning.
• Spreadsheets are versatile. With their Boolean logic and graphics capabilities, even electronic circuit design is possible.
• Spreadsheets can store relational data and spreadsheet formulas can express all queries of SQL. There exists a query translator, which automatically generates the spreadsheet implementation from the SQL code.

Spreadsheet programs

A "spreadsheet program" is designed to perform general computation tasks using spatial relationships rather than time as the primary organizing principle.

It is often convenient to think of a spreadsheet as a mathematical graph, where the nodes are spreadsheet cells, and the edges are references to other cells specified in formulas. This is often called the dependency graph of the spreadsheet. References between cells can take advantage of spatial concepts such as relative position and absolute position, as well as named locations, to make the spreadsheet formulas easier to understand and manage.

Spreadsheets usually attempt to automatically update cells when the cells depend on change. The earliest spreadsheets used simple tactics like evaluating cells in a particular order, but modern spreadsheets calculate following a minimal recomputation order from the dependency graph. Later spreadsheets also include a limited ability to propagate values in reverse, altering source values so that a particular answer is reached in a certain cell. Since spreadsheet cell formulas are not generally invertible, though, this technique is of somewhat limited value.

Many of the concepts common to sequential programming models have analogs in the spreadsheet world. For example, the sequential model of the indexed loop is usually represented as a table of cells, with similar formulas (normally differing only in which cells they reference).

Spreadsheets have evolved to use scripting programming languages like VBA as a tool for extensibility beyond what the spreadsheet language makes easy.

Shortcomings

While spreadsheets represented a major step forward in quantitative modeling, they have deficiencies. Their shortcomings include the perceived unfriendliness of alpha-numeric cell addresses.

• Research by ClusterSeven has shown huge discrepancies in the way financial institutions and corporate entities understand, manage and police their often vast estates of spreadsheets and unstructured financial data (including comma-separated values (CSV) files and Microsoft Access databases). One study in early 2011 of nearly 1,500 people in the UK found that 57% of spreadsheet users have never received formal training on the spreadsheet package they use. 72% said that no internal department checks their spreadsheets for accuracy. Only 13% said that Internal Audit reviews their spreadsheets, while a mere 1% receive checks from their risk department.

• Spreadsheets can have reliability problems. Research studies estimate that around 1% of all formulas in operational spreadsheets are in error.

Despite the high error risks often associated with spreadsheet authorship and use, specific steps can be taken to significantly enhance control and reliability by structurally reducing the likelihood of error occurrence at their source.

• The practical expressiveness of spreadsheets can be limited unless their modern features are used. Several factors contribute to this limitation. Implementing a complex model on a cell-at-a-time basis requires tedious attention to detail. Authors have difficulty remembering the meanings of hundreds or thousands of cell addresses that appear in formulas.

These drawbacks are mitigated by the use of named variables for cell designations, and employing variables in formulas rather than cell locations and cell-by-cell manipulations. Graphs can be used to show instantly how results are changed by changes in parameter values. The spreadsheet can be made invisible except for a transparent user interface that requests pertinent input from the user, displays results requested by the user, creates reports, and has built-in error traps to prompt correct input.

• Similarly, formulas expressed in terms of cell addresses are hard to keep straight and hard to audit. Research shows that spreadsheet auditors who check numerical results and cell formulas find no more errors than auditors who only check numerical results. That is another reason to use named variables and formulas employing named variables.

Specifically, spreadsheets typically contain many copies of the same formula. When the formula is modified, the user has to change every cell containing that formula. In contrast, most computer languages allow a formula to appear only once in the code and achieve repetition using loops: making them much easier to implement and audit.

• The alteration of a dimension demands major surgery. When rows (or columns) are added to or deleted from a table, one has to adjust the size of many downstream tables that depend on the table being changed. In the process, it is often necessary to move other cells around to make room for the new columns or rows and to adjust graph data sources. In large spreadsheets, this can be extremely time-consuming.
• Adding or removing a dimension is so difficult, one generally has to start over. The spreadsheet as a paradigm forces one to decide on dimensionality right of the beginning of one's spreadsheet creation, even though it is often most natural to make these choices after one's spreadsheet model has matured. The desire to add and remove dimensions also arises in parametric and sensitivity analyses.
• Collaboration in authoring spreadsheet formulas can be difficult when such collaboration occurs at the level of cells and cell addresses.

Other problems associated with spreadsheets include:

• Some sources advocate the use of specialized software instead of spreadsheets for some applications (budgeting, statistics)
• The Microsoft xls file format which is the default file format used in versions prior to 2007 had a capacity limit of 65,536 rows by 256 columns (2¹⁶ and 2⁸ respectively). This presents a problem for people using larger datasets, and can result in data loss. In spite of the time passed, a recent example is the loss of COVID-19 positives in the British statistics for September and October 2020 when the Microsoft xls file format had been used in a legacy computer system.
• Lack of auditing and revision control. This makes it difficult to determine who changed what and when. This can cause problems with regulatory compliance. Lack of revision control greatly increases the risk of errors due to the inability to track, isolate and test changes made to a document. Modern spreadsheets include revision control.
• Lack of security. Spreadsheets lack controls on who can see and modify particular data. This, combined with the lack of auditing above, can make it easy for someone to commit fraud.
• Because they are loosely structured, it is easy for someone to introduce an error, either accidentally or intentionally, by entering information in the wrong place or expressing dependencies among cells (such as in a formula) incorrectly.
• The results of a formula (example "=A1*B1") applies only to a single cell (that is, the cell the formula is located in—in this case perhaps C1), even though it can "extract" data from many other cells, and even real-time dates and actual times. This means that to cause a similar calculation on an array of cells, an almost identical formula (but residing in its own "output" cell) must be repeated for each row of the "input" array. This differs from a "formula" in a conventional computer program, which typically makes one calculation that it applies to all the input in turn. With current spreadsheets, this forced repetition of near-identical formulas can have detrimental consequences from a quality assurance standpoint and is often the cause of many spreadsheet errors. Some spreadsheets have array formulas to address this issue.
• Trying to manage the sheer volume of spreadsheets that may exist in an organization without proper security, audit trails, the unintentional introduction of errors, and other items listed above can become overwhelming.

While there are built-in and third-party tools for desktop spreadsheet applications that address some of these shortcomings, awareness, and use of these is generally low. A good example of this is that 55% of Capital market professionals "don't know" how their spreadsheets are audited; only 6% invest in a third-party solution

Spreadsheet risk

Further information: Financial modeling § Accounting

Spreadsheet risk is the risk associated with deriving a materially incorrect value from a spreadsheet application that will be utilized in making a related (usually numerically based) decision. Examples include the valuation of an asset, the determination of financial accounts, the calculation of medicinal doses, or the size of a load-bearing beam for structural engineering. The risk may arise from inputting erroneous or fraudulent data values, from mistakes (or incorrect changes) within the logic of the spreadsheet or the omission of relevant updates (e.g., out of date exchange rates). Some single-instance errors have exceeded US$1 billion. Because spreadsheet risk is principally linked to the actions (or inaction) of individuals it is defined as a sub-category of operational risk.

Despite this, research carried out by ClusterSeven revealed that around half (48%) of c-level executives and senior managers at firms reporting annual revenues over £50m said there were either no usage controls at all or poorly applied manual processes over the use of spreadsheets at the firms.

In 2013 Thomas Herndon, a graduate student of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst found major coding flaws in the spreadsheet used by the economists Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff in Growth in a Time of Debt, a very influential 2010 journal article. The Reinhart and Rogoff article was widely used as justification to drive 2010–2013 European austerity programs.

See also

• Attribute-value system
• Comparison of spreadsheet software
• Moving and copying in spreadsheets
• List of spreadsheet software
• Model audit

External links

• comp.apps.spreadsheets FAQ by Russell Schulz
• Extending the Concept of Spreadsheet by Jocelyn Paine
• Spreadsheet at Curlie
• Spreadsheet – Its First Computerization (1961–1964) by Richard Mattessich
• CICS history and introduction of IBM 3270 by Bob Yelavich
• Autoplan & Autotab article by Creative Karma
• Spreadsheets in Science Archived 2020-01-17 at the Wayback Machine