Paper talk: Embedding Model-Driven Spreadsheet Queries in Spreadsheet Systems Melbourne, Australia

1. Rui Pereira, Jácome Cunha, João Paulo Fernandes,
Jorge Mendes and João Saraiva
Embedding Model-Driven Spreadsheet
Queries in Spreadsheet Systems
VL/HCC 2014
Melbourne, Australia

2. Problem: Querying Spreadsheets
1
› “poor man’s database”
› No way to query what data they contain
Spreadsheets are generally used to store information
Attempts to replicate traditional querying systems
› Highly restrict user’s spreadsheet data
› Denormalization
› Headers present
› Column letters ≠ Column labels
› Data evolution not supported

3. 2
Budget Spreadsheet
Question – What was the total per year, in decreasing
order, from 2010 onwards?

4. 3
Google QUERY Function
Question – What was the total per year, in decreasing
order, from 2010 onwards?
=query(A1:E53;”SELECT A, sum(E) WHERE A >= 2010
GROUP BY A ORDER BY sum(E) DESC”)

5. 4
QuerySheet
Question – What was the total per year, in decreasing
order, from 2010 onwards?
SELECT Year, sum(Total)
WHERE Year >= 2010
GROUP BY Year
Order BY sum(Total) DESC

6. 5
Previous Empirical Study
› Easier to construct queries
› Intuitive and Understandable queries
› Productive/Faster
Our goal with Model-Driven Querying:
› Semantic errors
› Syntax errors
› Low SQL knowledge  Construction still difficult
Recurring problem among participants:

7. 6
Embedded Spreadsheet SQL
› Guide end-users in constructing queries
› Reduce the number of errors
› Continue taking advantage of positive aspects of
QuerySheet
› SQL knowledge not needed

8. 7
ES-SQL - Environment
Question – What was the total per year, in decreasing
order, from 2010 onwards?

9. 8
ES-SQL - Synchronization
ClassSheet
Spreadsheet
conforms to

10. 8
ES-SQL - Synchronization
ClassSheet
Spreadsheet
ClassSheet’
Spreadsheet’
Qm + Q Qm’ + Q’

11. 9
ES-SQL - Synchronization

12. 10
Conclusions and Future Work
› Approach built on model-driven querying language
› Visual query construction
› Elimination of construction errors
› Fully embedded model-driven querying system
› Synchronization between model, instance, and query
Embedded Spreadsheet SQL
We still need to:
› Add missing expressions to the Embedded Query
› Validation through empirical study

13. Rui Pereira, Jácome Cunha, João Paulo Fernandes,
Jorge Mendes and João Saraiva
Embedding Model-Driven Spreadsheet
Queries in Spreadsheet Systems
VL/HCC 2014
Melbourne, Australia