What is a Cell?
A cell is the smallest addressable unit in a RadSpreadProcessing worksheet. Use this article to understand how cells are identified, what information they store, and which related APIs and articles help you start working with them.
Cell Addresses
A worksheet organizes cells into rows and columns. Each cell sits at the intersection of one row and one column and has a unique address in A1 notation.
For example, A1 identifies the top-left cell in the worksheet, while XFD1048576 identifies the last possible cell in an Excel-compatible worksheet. These addresses are useful when you read formulas, reason about ranges, or follow examples elsewhere in the documentation.
When you need to work with a single cell or a range of cells in code, continue with Accessing Cells of a Worksheet.
Cell Content and Properties
A cell can hold both data and the settings that control how that data appears. In practice, a cell commonly includes the following parts:
- Value data such as text, numbers, Boolean values, dates, or formulas.
- Formatting such as fonts, number formats, foreground and background colors, bold, italic, and underline.
- Layout settings such as horizontal and vertical alignment, text wrapping, indentation, and text rotation.
- Border and fill settings that control how the cell is outlined and shaded.
Cells can start empty and still carry formatting or other properties. When a cell contains a formula, the stored formula text and the displayed result are not always the same value. For details about supported value types and how the Value property behaves, see Cell Value Types.
Cell Behavior in a Worksheet
Cells participate in worksheet operations that affect one cell, many cells, or an entire range. The most common behaviors include:
- Copying and pasting data, formulas, formatting, or column widths. For more information, see Clipboard Support.
- Filling neighboring cells automatically with repeated, linear, exponential, date-based, or autofill series. For more information, see Fill Data Automatically.
- Merging adjacent cells into a single visual region and unmerging them later. For more information, see Merge and Unmerge Cells.
- Reading, setting, and clearing properties through
CellSelection, which is the main API surface for working with one cell or many cells together.
This behavior matters because many RadSpreadProcessing APIs work with selections and ranges rather than with a standalone cell object. If your next task is to read or update content, formatting, or other properties, start with Get, Set and Clear Cell Properties.
Next Steps
Continue with the article that matches your next task:
- Accessing Cells of a Worksheet—Access a single cell or a range of cells in code
- Cell Value Types—Understand supported data types and formula values
- Get, Set and Clear Cell Properties—Read or update formatting and other cell properties
- Fill Data Automatically—Populate neighboring cells with repeated or sequential data
- Merge and Unmerge Cells—Combine adjacent cells into a single visual region