Precedents and Dependents in Spreadsheets

What makes a spreadsheet a spreadsheet, and not a word document or a database or a calculator? What is the most basic and defining feature of a spreadsheet? "The key feature of spreadsheets is the ability for a formula to refer to the contents of other cells, which may in turn be the result of a formula."  "The ability to chain formulas together is what gives a spreadsheet its power."                                ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spreadsheet ) Yes, it is this feature of chaining formulas. A formula refers to a cell that itself may be another formula. Spreadsheet users could design complex chains of formula. However, once built, there is no easy way to see the chains of formula. That is not a good situation. Imagine a city that has built a network of roads but has no map of the roads. This is where "trace precedent" and "trace dependent" come in.  If you are at o...

In a survey, it was found that spreadsheet users who are every experienced or experts use "formula auditing tools" frequently, on average. With the measuring scale of "never use, rare use, occasional use, frequent use and daily use", an average of frequent use means that many use formula auditing tools daily. Furthermore, 51% of them use formula auditing tools to evaluate their spreadsheet models. In contrast, less than 10% of the less experienced spreadsheet users use formula auditing tools to evaluate spreadsheet models. A major component of "formula auditing tools" is for tracing precedents and dependents. Data are from this paper: Baker, Kenneth R., et al. "Comparison of characteristics and practices amongst spreadsheet users with different levels of experience."  arXiv preprint arXiv:0803.0168  (2008).