A New Basis for Spreadsheet Computing

There is a fundamental mismatch between the computational basis of spreadsheets and our knowledge of the real world. In spreadsheets, numeric data are represented as exact numbers and their mutual relations as functions, whose values (output) are computed from given argument values (input). However, in the real world, data are often inexact and uncertain in many ways, and the relationships, that is, constraints, between input and output are far more complicated. This article shows that interval constraint solving, an emerging AIbased technology, provides a more versatile and useful foundation for spreadsheets. The new computational basis is 100-percent downward compatible with the traditional spreadsheet paradigm.