The interface of a spreadsheet program is usually a two-dimensional table consisting of vertical columns and horizontal rows. One box in a table is called a cell. The most well-known spreadsheet programs are MS Excel and Quattro Pro.

Each cell has an address based on a column and a row. For example, the address C4 refers to a cell in the fourth row of the third column, i.e. column C.

Three types of information can be entered in the cells:

• text
• numbers
• calculation formulas

The idea of ​​spreadsheets is to generate result data from input data. In order for the results to be updated automatically when the input data changes, formulas are used to calculate the result data. Formulas in Excel always start with an equals sign (=). The formulas refer to the cells in the table. A selected part of the table can be printed on paper. Most spreasheet programs can also draw graphs based on the data.