Thread: C: Spreadsheet Excel-like table implementation

Hello, I have one theoretical question.

I have a project (C language) where I implement multiple operations over a spreadsheet, that looks like this (and will be given in a .txt file):

EXAMPLE:

Exercise : Points : Project
First programs: 0:
Loops, types: 0:
Arrays: 0:
Function 1: 0:
Structures: 2:
Indicators: 2:
Function 2: 1:
Malloc, dbg: 2:
: 0:
: 0:
Iteration, recursion: 2:
Dynamic structures: 2:


":" will separate individual cells.
Operations that I have to implement will be, for example, to delete specific row, add new column, change value of cell and so on...

What would be the best data structure to use for this kind of spreadsheet?

I tried to do it with an array, but in case of, for example, resizing table or adding new cells, I have to move all elements and that is not really efficient. I'm sure there's a better way.
Thanks for any help.

Originally Posted by VasilP

Hello, I have one theoretical question.

I have a project (C language) where I implement multiple operations over a spreadsheet, that looks like this (and will be given in a .txt file):

EXAMPLE:

Exercise : Points : Project
First programs: 0:
Loops, types: 0:
Arrays: 0:
Function 1: 0:
Structures: 2:
Indicators: 2:
Function 2: 1:
Malloc, dbg: 2:
: 0:
: 0:
Iteration, recursion: 2:
Dynamic structures: 2:


":" will separate individual cells.
Operations that I have to implement will be, for example, to delete specific row, add new column, change value of cell and so on...

What would be the best data structure to use for this kind of spreadsheet?

I tried to do it with an array, but in case of, for example, resizing table or adding new cells, I have to move all elements and that is not really efficient. I'm sure there's a better way.
Thanks for any help.

Make a "cell" structure which consists of a character pointer and a double. When the character pointer is null, the double data is valid, unless it is NaN, when the cell is empty. This approach won't scale up (you'll need a union if you want to support lots of data types) but it will work for a 2-type cell. Then have an array of cells which is flat but you treat as 2D.

Wrap it in a structure which contains width, height, and, maybe, column headers (or you could treat the first row of cells as the headers, I'll leave that up to you).

Write the insert / delete functions so that they return entire new structures. Don't worry about efficiency. The spreadsheets have to be far larger than any human could mange before this becomes an issue.