Abstract: Methods and systems for providing an improved grid-based data processing experience are described. Using the improved grid-based data processing system, a user can edit cells in a way that is intuitive, and the system automatically checks and adjusts the grid to alleviate any circular references or violations of relationships among the cells of the grid. For example, if a user's edit to a target cell creates a circular reference or breaks a predefined relationship, the system can automatically edit one or more other cells of the grid to obviate the problem. Such automatic editing may involve deriving a new formula to populate one or more non-target cells.