US Patent 11586603 Index sheets for robust spreadsheet-based applications

At a data management service, an index structure corresponding to a data sheet is stored. The data sheet comprises a grid of cells. An entry of the index structure comprises a reference to content of a cell of the data sheet. In response to a grid structure change of the data sheet, the index entry is automatically updated such that the same content remains referenced from the index entry as before. A result of a computation of an application is obtained using an identifier of the index entry to obtain content from the data sheet. The result is provided to a destination.