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A decision tree represents a deterministic computation of a known Boolean function $f:\{0,1{\}}^n\to \{0,1\}$ by inspecting input bits. Each internal vertex of its binary tree names a coordinate $i$ to query, its two outgoing edges carry answers 0 and 1, and each leaf carries the output 0 or 1. Starting at the root of a tree, read the named bit, follow its answer edge, and repeat until a leaf is reached. Correctness requires the leaf's label to equal $f(x)$ for every input $x$.^[ref]

The next coordinate, or the decision to stop, can depend on earlier answers: this is adaptive querying. The same input always follows the same graph path; adaptivity does not require randomness. A correct leaf must have the same output for every completion of the observed bits. Thus a decision tree can stop as soon as the observations form a query certificate. Querying an already known coordinate adds no information, so we use decision trees without repeated coordinates on a graph path; an efficient tree also removes queries made after the output is already forced.

The motivation is exact computation with shortcuts. If inspecting an input entry is expensive, the question is how much of the input must actually be read. The decision-tree query cost counts these inspections, while local calculations on known values are free in this model; this cost need not equal an implementation's time complexity. Here the Boolean function is specified in advance and must be computed exactly on every input. Decision tree learning instead fits a predictor from data, with a different objective.

For a terminating pure function, a reusable entry must record its correct completed result, and equal memoization keys must imply equal results throughout the entry's memoization cache lifetime. Reusing that result must also preserve the behavior callers require. These conditions separate correctness from speed: a complete key can be correct even if it rarely repeats.

A procedure using deterministic computation can still have a required side effect. If a procedure returns $n^2$ and appends an audit record on every call, serving the second call from a table preserves the numerical answer but skips the second record. Likewise, if each call promises a fresh mutable list, returning the same stored mutable list changes observable sharing and allows a caller to damage later answers. Plain result reuse is unsuitable for those contracts.^[ref]

Completion matters for recursion. Suppose computing key $A$ needs key $B$, and computing $B$ needs $A$. A table containing only completed answers has no answer to return for the second $A$; remembering completed values does not make this directed cycle terminate. Marking a key ACTIVE before descending detects re-entry, as in spreadsheet dependency evaluation, but detection is not a solution of the circular equations. If computation fails, clear its active mark and do not publish an unfinished value. The example using Fibonacci numbers avoids this issue through a strictly decreasing argument.

The call counts above assume sequential execution and no eviction. Concurrent requests for an absent key can both begin evaluation before either publishes its result; keeping a table coherent alone does not ensure one body execution per key.^[ref]

$\mathbf{P}$ is the class of decision problems decidable by a deterministic computation in polynomial time.

Evaluate numeric formula dependencies using depth-first search and memoization, or a topological ordering. Marking active evaluations detects cycles; repeated numerical sweeps need not terminate or determine a unique result.

A spreadsheet dependency graph turns a page of spreadsheet formulas into a plan: compute each prerequisite before the spreadsheet cell that consumes it. This section uses a deliberately small model with explicit cell references, fixed spreadsheet formulas, and deterministic computation from numerical inputs. There are no external data changes or formulas that change their references while running. Within these assumptions, a topological order gives a reproducible answer without repeatedly sweeping the visible grid.

Take two input spreadsheet cells and five spreadsheet formulas:

Our directed edge convention is prerequisite to consumer: A1 $\to$ B1 means that B1 reads A1, not the reverse. The seven directed edges are A1 $\to$ B1, A2 $\to$ B1, A1 $\to$ B2, B1 $\to$ C1, B2 $\to$ C1, C1 $\to$ D1, and A2 $\to$ E1. This spreadsheet dependency graph is a Directed acyclic graph. One topological order is A1,A2,B1,B2,C1,D1,E1; E1 could instead be computed immediately after A2. A topological order constrains prerequisites, not the physical positions of spreadsheet cells.

In that order, the initial arithmetic operations give $B1=3+4=7$, $B2=2\cdot 3=6$, $C1=7+6=13$, $D1=13/2$, and $E1=4^2=16$. The spreadsheet formulas define one value per spreadsheet cell: an outline by induction along any topological order shows that every prerequisite already has its uniquely determined value when its consumer is computed. Different permitted orders therefore agree in this model. The useful idea is that information flows through the Directed acyclic graph even when the visible grid does not display that flow.

A concrete implementation history illustrates this separation. Microsoft's documentation distinguishes the per-worksheet calculation chains used in Excel 2002 and earlier from calculation using multiple software threads introduced in Excel 2007 for independent chain sections. This is a documented implementation example, not a definition of spreadsheet dependency evaluation.^[ref]