Patent ID: 7146561

Claim:
A method of comparing two series of cells in a multidimensional spreadsheet comprising a plurality of cells identified by a cell address along each dimension, a series of cells comprising one or a plurality of cell range, a cell range comprising one or a plurality of cells, said method comprising the steps of: defining a Boolean attribute, said Boolean attribute having a first and a second value; assigning the first value of said Boolean attribute to each cell of a first series of cells; assigning the second value of said Boolean attribute to each cell of a second series of cells; determining in a first operation whether all the cells of said first series of cells share the same first value of said Boolean attribute, or share the same second value of said Boolean attribute or do not share single value of said Boolean attribute; for a second operation, again assigning the first value of said Boolean attribute to each cell of the first series of cells; determining in a second operation whether all the cells of the second series of cells share the same first value of said Boolean attribute, or share the same second value of said Boolean attribute or do not share a same single value of said Boolean attribute; recording intermediary information from the first operation and the second operation in a comparison table, stored in a memory of a computer; determining whether the first series and the second series are the same or not by comparing results of the first operation and the second operation: if all the cells of the first series share the same second value of said Boolean attribute in said first operation and if all the cells of the second series share the same first value of said Boolean attribute in said second operation, the first series and the second series are the same.