Unification of Arrays in Spreadsheets with Logic Programming

Unification, one of the key processes underlying logic programming (LP), provides a powerful mechanism for assembling and disassembling structures, lists in particular, by matching patterns. In recent work, we showed how spreadsheets can be enhanced by adding a visual form of LP in which lists, the fundamental structures of LP, are replaced by rectangular arrays, the fundamental structures of spreadsheets. The benefits include enhanced programmability and a way to specify high level templates for spreadsheet structures. Here, we focus on the structure of arrays, and describe the array unification algorithm underlying our current implementation.

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