Embodiments are disclosed in which a process generates, receives, or both, via a graphical user interface (GUI) of a spreadsheet application, an evaluation statement. The evaluation statement includes a cell identifier, and the cell identifier specifies a modal reference cell that provides an indication of a modal attribute to be used in the evaluation statement. The indication of the modal attribute comprises a textual indicator related to the modal attribute, but has a format that is different than the modal attribute. The process evaluates the textual indicator to be used by the evaluation statement to determine a corresponding modal attribute and calculates a solution to the evaluation statement using the corresponding modal attribute as the modal attribute of the evaluation statement. The process displays the solution via the GUI.