- author = "William R. Harris and Sumit Gulwani",
- title = "Spreadsheet table transformations from examples",
- journal = "ACM SIGPLAN Notices",
- volume = "46",
- issue = "6",
- month = jun,
- year = "2011",
- pages = "317--328",
- keywords = "genetic algorithms, genetic programming, end-user programming, program synthesis, programming by example, spreadsheet programming, table manipulation, user intent",
- ISSN = "0362-1340",
-
DOI = "
doi:10.1145/1993316.1993536",
- size = "12 pages",
- acmid = "1993536",
- publisher = "ACM",
-
abstract = "Every day, millions of computer end-users need to
perform tasks over large, tabular data, yet lack the
programming knowledge to do such tasks automatically.
In this work, we present an automatic technique that
takes from a user an example of how the user needs to
transform a table of data, and provides to the user a
program that implements the transformation described by
the example. In particular, we present a language of
programs TableProg that can describe transformations
that real users require.We then present an algorithm
ProgFromEx that takes an example input and output
table, and infers a program in TableProg that
implements the transformation described by the example.
When the program is applied to the example input, it
reproduces the example output. When the program is
applied to another, potentially larger, table with a
'similar' layout as the example input table, then the
program produces a corresponding table with a layout
that is similar to the example output table. A user can
apply ProgFromEx interactively, providing multiple
small examples to obtain a program that implements the
transformation that the user desires. Moreover,
ProgFromEx can help identify 'noisy' examples that
contain errors.
To evaluate the practicality of TableProg and ProgFromEx, we implemented ProgFromEx as a module for the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet program. We applied the module to automatically implement over 50 table transformations specified by end users through examples on on line Excel help forums. In seconds, ProgFromEx found programs that satisfied the examples and could be applied to larger input tables. This experience demonstrates that TableProg and ProgFromEx can significantly automate the tasks over tabular data that users need to perform.",
- notes = "As \cite{Harris:2011:PLDI} ? Also known as \cite{Harris:2011:STT:1993316.1993536}",
