Patent ID: 7472339

Claim:
In a method for persistently self-replicating 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 labelled A 1 , at least two self-replicating ranges (PSRR) of cells, each range containing at least one cell; at least two of said ranges comprising a self-replicating set (PSRS) and having different addresses relative to the top leftmost cell A 1 of the respective page on which each of said ranges is located; wherein each time the content of a range of cells belonging to said set is updated, a self-replication operation is automatically performed, said self-replication operation comprising the steps of: (1) automatically copying the changed range of cells onto a buffer; (2) automatically defining the set of ranges of cells to which the changed range of cells belongs; (3) automatically identifying the ranges of cells belonging to said set; (4) establishing a self replication table containing a PSRR address, a PSRR pattern, a PSRS name, a set and range indices, and having a top record; (5) setting the top record of the self replication table as the current record; and (6) comparing the current record of the self replication table with the address of the range of cells that is updated; the step of automatically updating all other PSRRs within a persistent self replicating set (PSRS) by: a) detecting a PSRR content update; b) retrieving the address of the updated PSRR; and c) pasting the updated range of cells into the range of cells pointed by the PSRR address field of the current record of the self replication table.