On 1/3/2010 10:27 PM, vsoler wrote:
1) what are, in your opinion, the basic elements of the Cell class?
The "user-entered formula" and "effective value". A Cell containing a
formula "abc" has a value of "abc"; a cell containing the formula "=1+5"
has a value of "6". You could use the 'property' decorator for the
"effective value" attribute.
2) Do I need a parser to evaluate the formulas like “3*A1+A2”? Can you
recommend one library that already contains one?
Yes you do. PyParsing, regex, write your own parser; choose your own
poison depending on the expected complexity of the formulaes.
3) Do I need a tree data structure to represent my data?
There are two main options for your "primary data structure":
- table (2x2 list) -- if you expect most of your cells to be filled,
this is simple, but uses lots of memory
- sparse table (list/dicts of cells) -- if you have a large table that
is mostly empty cells
The Dependency Tree is the "side data structure"; a "Cell" is a "Node";
a Cell's "dependencies" is the Node's "children"; a Cell's "dependant"
is the Node's "parent". Cells maintains a list of dependencies (or
dynamically generates them when requested) by analyzing the "formula"
attribute for references to other cells.
PS: Strictly speaking, this "side data structure" is not a "Tree" as
there are multiple root nodes. I think it's called "Directed Acyclic
Graph". However, it's true that, given a cell as a root, the cell's
dependencies is a proper tree.
would the
tree be an attribute of the class instance?
you could use 'property' decorator and make the dependency tree a
"computed attribute" of the cell; many people recommended against a
'property' that is heavy to compute though and calculating dependencies
may be quite heavy depending on the complexity of the spreadsheet.
I imagine a lot can be said on these questions. What I am looking for
is some hints that help me get out of where I am now.
Any help is highly appreciated.
Vicente Soler
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