Patent ID: 7415474

Claim:
One or more data structures for a programmable calculation engine, wherein the one or more data structures are embodied on a computer-readable storage medium and comprise: a plurality of tables; a plurality of columns of fields, individual columns belonging to one of the tables, and at least one of the columns having a property comprising a formula; and a plurality of rows of fields, wherein at least one of the fields has a value, and wherein individual rows belong to one of the tables, wherein at least one of the tables is subject to: at least one table-level function comprising a grouping function, at least one field-level function that operates on a field of the at least one table; and at least one column-level function that operates on a column of the at least one table, wherein the at least one column-level function comprises a computation function based on the formula, and wherein the formula specifies the at least one table and the at least one column of the at least one table, and wherein at least one of the tables comprises a data value obtained to evaluate the formula, and wherein at least one of the columns comprises an ordered list of formulas structured such that formulas that appear later in the list serve as fallback formulas for formulas that appear earlier in the list.