Patent ID: 8250461
Filing Date: 2012-08-21
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A system, comprising: a central processor in communication via a system bus with a main memory and a disk memory; wherein the central processor, when executing program instructions stored on the disk memory via the main memory, self-replicates multiple ranges of cells through a copy and paste operation in a multi-dimensional spreadsheet comprising at least one page having a plurality of cells with content and identified by a cell address along each dimension, with the address of the top leftmost cell of said at least one page labeled, by: defining persistently self-replicating sets of the cells, each of the persistently self-replicating sets comprising a plurality of persistently self-replicating ranges of the cells, each range containing at least one cell and having a small cell size, at least two of said persistently self-replicating ranges within a persistently self-replicating set having different addresses relative to the labeled top leftmost cell address of a respective page on which each of said ranges is located; and performing a self-replication operation each time the content of a range of cells belonging to a persistently self-replicating set is changed, by: copying the changed range of cells onto a buffer; identifying the persistently self-replicating range of cells to which the changed range of cells belongs; identifying the persistently self-replicating set of ranges to which the identified persistently self-replicating range of cells belongs; establishing a top record within a self replication table containing an address of the identified persistently self-replicating range of cells, a pattern of the identified persistently self-replicating range of cells, a name of the identified persistently self-replicating set of ranges, and set and range indices; setting the top record of the self replication table as the current record; and updating all other persistently self-replicating ranges within the identified persistent self-replicating set by retrieving the address field of the identified persistently self-replicating range of cells from the top record of the self replication table set as the current record and pasting the content of the updated range of cells pointed to by the retrieved address field.