Patent ID: 7272783

Claim:
A method, in a computer system, for processing user defined Boolean variables in a multi-dimensional electronic spreadsheet comprising a plurality of cells identified by a cell address along each dimension, said method comprising the steps of: providing a model by configuring a memory of the computer system to represent a multi-dimensional electronic spreadsheet model; providing, in the computer system, a user options table data structure identifying one or more user options that are defined as Boolean variables, wherein the user options table data structure comprises a record for each user option of the one or more user options, and wherein each record stores an identifier associated with a corresponding user option for the record; providing a user interface, in the computer system, through which the one or more user options are defined, wherein a status of the one or more user options is set via the user interface to either a first Boolean variable state corresponding to a “True” state or a second Boolean variable state corresponding to a “False” state; referencing a selected user option of the one or more user options in one or a plurality of cells of the multi-dimensional electronic spreadsheet by including an identifier associated with the selected user option in content of the one or a plurality of cells; receiving an input to the user interface, via a peripheral device coupled to the computing system, the input specifying a status setting of the selected user option; reconfiguring the memory of the computer system to represent a modified model based on the input received via the user interface; determining a value of each of the one or plurality of cells based on the status of the selected user option as either being the first Boolean variable state or the second Boolean variable state, as specified by the input to the user interface; and providing an output of the modified model via an output device of the computer system based on the determined value of each of the one or plurality of cells, wherein the output of the modified model provides information to a user regarding a scenario in which the selected user option has a status setting corresponding to the received input.