Suggestion: 3D spreadsheets

users
#1

Something new an that would be really great is to add implementation for 3
(and potentially more) dimensional spreadsheets.
What it would look like :
Basically the same as a 2D spreadsheet. But by holding Alt+scrolling with
the mouse, you could change the third dimension, showing the 2D spreadsheet
of that third index.

For instance let's say the third dimensions use greek characters. Then by
default you see the "α" 2D spreadsheet showing the numbers and letters grid
at that value "α".
You hold Alt and scroll once and it changes to "β" 2D spreadsheet. And so
on.

Also it would require a way to select the X and Y axis in order to visualize
the data. So for instance you could change the X axis to display the greek
letters dimension and show the numbers on Y axis.

This could be really powerful. What do you think?

#2

Something new an that would be really great is to add implementation for 3 (and potentially more) dimensional spreadsheets. What it would look like :
Basically the same as a 2D spreadsheet. But by holding Alt+scrolling with the mouse, you could change the third dimension, showing the 2D spreadsheet of that third index.

My spreadsheet documents have this facility in that they possess multiple sheets. I can even select multiple sheets at once, so that any action can apply to corresponding cells on multiple sheets. In other words, I am able to select a cell range in your third dimension.

For instance let's say the third dimensions use Greek characters. Then by default you see the [alpha] 2D spreadsheet showing the numbers and letters grid at that value [alpha]. You hold Alt and scroll once and it changes to [beta] 2D spreadsheet. And so on.

How does this differ from multiple sheets labelled "alpha", "beta", and so on?

This could be really powerful. What do you think?

I think you should write the code.

Brian Barker

#3

Maybe some examples of how it would be useful versus alternatives and
ideally some idea showing how easy to use it is?

#4

A long time ago I used a 5-D spreadsheet My experience was that
incredibly badly designed spreadsheets were the norm. Errors were
standard, and debugging was literally impossible.

Memory hungry, and very slow calculations were the most common complaints.

I did not encounter a use case for which a spreadsheet was more suitable
than a database. More pointedly, every use-case presented as a rational
for n-D spreadsheets, was for more appropriate for SQLite or MongoDB
database engine and R programming language.

All that said, if you are learning how to write software, a useful
exercise is to create an n-dimensional spreadsheet, using SQLite as the
database engine.

jonathon

#5

Give an example of what it could be used for.

#6

x-axis is time;
y-axis is factory;
z-axis is specific-product;
w-axis is cost-to-manufacture/wholesale price/distributor price/MSRP;

I've seen, and used spreadsheets with 4+ dimensions. By every measurable metric, they were were a disaster to work with. Much simpler and easier to use an appropriate designed database, with SQL to extract the appropriate data, and R to analyze that data.

jonathon