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(all) (header)  Press Enter to search · (https://arxiv.org/search/advanced) Advanced search    Computer Science > Human-Computer Interaction  arXiv:2608.26345 (cs)  (../static/base/1.0.1/css/abs.css) [Submitted on 26 Aug 2026] Title: Kale: A Transformation-Safe Spreadsheet System Authors: (https://arxiv.org/search/cs?searchtype=author&query=Coblenz,+M) Michael Coblenz , (https://arxiv.org/search/cs?searchtype=author&query=Yim,+J) Jacob Yim , (https://arxiv.org/search/cs?searchtype=author&query=Bokade,+A) Ajinkya Bokade , (https://arxiv.org/search/cs?searchtype=author&query=Padala,+M) Mounika Padala , (https://arxiv.org/search/cs?searchtype=author&query=Epshtein,+J) Julia Epshtein , (https://arxiv.org/search/cs?searchtype=author&query=Bhatia,+P) Priyanka Bhatia , (https://arxiv.org/search/cs?searchtype=author&query=Chauhan,+P) Piyush Chauhan , (https://arxiv.org/search/cs?searchtype=author&query=Gill,+S) Simran Gill , (https://arxiv.org/search/cs?searchtype=author&query=Gupta,+A) Aniket Gupta , (https://arxiv.org/search/cs?searchtype=author&query=Gurbani,+G) Grishma Gurbani , (https://arxiv.org/search/cs?searchtype=author&query=Khetan,+V) Vaibhav Khetan , (https://arxiv.org/search/cs?searchtype=author&query=Munjal,+A) Arushi Munjal , (https://arxiv.org/search/cs?searchtype=author&query=Tung,+J) Jeffery Tung , (https://arxiv.org/search/cs?searchtype=author&query=Yang,+J) Joanna Yang  View a PDF of the paper titled Kale: A Transformation-Safe Spreadsheet System, by Michael Coblenz and 13 other authors (https://arxiv.org/pdf/2608.26345) View PDF (https://arxiv.org/html/2608.26345v1) HTML (experimental) Abstract: Spreadsheet formulas can refer to rectangular ranges of arbitrary size. When a user changes the structure of a referenced table, the spreadsheet system updates the references to refer to a new range. Unfortunately, this new range may differ from the user's expectations, introducing bugs in spreadsheets. We describe a user study showing that standard reference semantics are error-prone, resulting in significant risk to users. We introduce Kale, a prototype system that eliminates the risk of inserting these kinds of bugs by restricting the kinds of references that can be expressed. We show that Kale can be used effectively by users to complete tasks that are error-prone in traditional spreadsheet systems. Finally, we describe a corpus study that evaluates the extent to which the reference restrictions in Kale might have implications on users.  Subjects: Human-Computer Interaction (cs.HC) ; Software Engineering (cs.SE)  Cite as: (2608.26345.html) arXiv:2608.26345 [cs.HC]    (or (https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.26345v1) arXiv:2608.26345v1 [cs.HC] for this version)    (https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2608.26345) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2608.26345   Focus to learn more   arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)        Submission history From: Jacob Yim [(https://arxiv.org/show-email/c8f5530d/2608.26345) view email ]  [v1] Wed, 26 Aug 2026 19:27:47 UTC (2,289 KB)    Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled Kale: A Transformation-Safe Spreadsheet System, by Michael Coblenz and 13 other authors (https://arxiv.org/pdf/2608.26345) View PDF  (https://arxiv.org/html/2608.26345v1) HTML (experimental)  (https://arxiv.org/src/2608.26345) TeX Source    (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) (Rights to this article) (license icon)  view license    Current browse context: cs.HC (https://arxiv.org/prevnext?id=2608.26345&function=prev&context=cs.HC) (previous in cs.HC (accesskey p)) < prev  |  (https://arxiv.org/prevnext?id=2608.26345&function=next&context=cs.HC) (next in cs.HC (accesskey n)) next >    (https://arxiv.org/list/cs.HC/new) new |  (https://arxiv.org/list/cs.HC/recent) recent |  (https://arxiv.org/list/cs.HC/2026-08) 2026-08  Change to browse by: (https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.26345?context=cs) cs (https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.26345?context=cs.SE) cs.SE    References & Citations (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/arXiv:2608.26345) NASA ADS  (https://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?arxiv_id=2608.26345) Google Scholar  (https://api.semanticscholar.org/arXiv:2608.26345) Semantic Scholar     export BibTeX citation Loading...  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