Workbook Edits and Batching

Formualizer supports both single-cell edits and grouped updates. Use the grouped path whenever you are importing or editing many cells at once.

Choose the right edit path

• Single edit: set_value / set_formula (simple and direct).
• Rectangular batch write: set_values, set_formulas, or write_range (Rust); set_values_batch / set_formulas_batch (Python); setValues / setFormulas (JS sheet facade).
• Atomic multi-step edit: Workbook::action(...) in Rust rolls back all changes if one step fails.
• Undo/redo grouping: begin_action(...) + end_action(...) groups many writes into one user-visible action.

Batch write, then evaluate

use formualizer_common::LiteralValue;use formualizer_workbook::Workbook;let mut wb = Workbook::new();wb.add_sheet("S")?;wb.set_changelog_enabled(true);wb.action("seed pricing block", |tx| {  tx.set_value("S", 1, 1, LiteralValue::Number(100.0))?;  tx.set_value("S", 2, 1, LiteralValue::Number(0.1))?;  tx.set_formula("S", 1, 2, "=A1*(1-A2)")?;  Ok(())})?;let out = wb.evaluate_cells(&[("S", 1, 2)])?;assert_eq!(out[0], LiteralValue::Number(90.0));

Practical notes

• Batch helpers reduce repeated graph/editor churn compared with many per-cell calls.
• In Python/JS bindings, batch helpers internally wrap writes in an action for cleaner undo history.
• After staging formulas, run evaluate_cell, evaluate_cells, or evaluate_all explicitly where your flow needs computed values.
• For large imports, evaluate only target cells first (evaluate_cells) before full-sheet recomputation.

Related

• Dependency Graph and Recalculation
• Deterministic Testing
• Custom Functions (Rust, Python, JS)