Creating and handling lambda functions in spreadsheet applications

• Main Authors: Gross, Christopher John, Gordon, Andrew Donald, Duzak, Jeffrey James, Becker, Andrew James, Russo, Claudio Vittorio
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 28.07.2020
• Subjects: CALCULATING; COMPUTING; COUNTING; ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING; PHYSICS

Examples discussed herein relate to creating and handling lambdas in spreadsheet application, e.g., Microsoft Excel®. As discussed herein, lambdas are user defined functions (UDFs) that are natively creatable and maintainable through the use of a lambda registry in the spreadsheet application. In an implementation, a method of handling lambdas in a spreadsheet application is disclosed. The method includes detecting that a cell of a spreadsheet is populated with an expression that defines a lambda function and registering the lambda function with a lambda registry corresponding to the spreadsheet. The registration includes recording a home cell that identifies a location of the cell of the spreadsheet where the lambda function is defined. The method further includes replacing the expression that defines the lambda function with a reference to the registered lambda function.