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Ask HN: Rate my Product : QueryCell

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Re: Ask HN: Rate my Product : QueryCell

#11

Post by viggity »

jcdreads wrote: post #9
tzury wrote: post #6

Nice, However, a question raised in my mind. Are you targeting Excel's power users, such as analysts and accountants or software developers? Since "standard" users are not going to learn SQL your market is narrowed to developers only. You may add a GUI based Query-Builder such as can be found in MS Acess and MSSqlServer and other DB systems and by these you can gain more market share. Build an easy to use wizard and…

> Since "standard" users are not going to learn SQL your market is narrowed to developers only. Power users aren't _that_ narrow a user base. There are an enormous number of data miners (analysts, integrators, etc.) out there who work in Excel because they must, or because they're used to it, or because that's the format that their data arrives in, or because it's a nice visual tool that allows them to easily inspect…

I agree 100%, I don't think it is wise (at least initially) to water down your product with wizards, etc. Focus on that niche and focus hard.

Re: Ask HN: Rate my Product : QueryCell

#12

Post by samh »

viggity wrote: post #11
jcdreads wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Since "standard" users are not going to learn SQL your market is narrowed to developers only. Power users aren't _that_ narrow a user base. There are an enormous number of data miners (analysts, integrators, etc.) out there who work in Excel because they must, or because they're used to it, or because that's the format that their data arrives in, or because it's a nice visual tool that allows them to easily inspect…

I agree 100%, I don't think it is wise (at least initially) to water down your product with wizards, etc. Focus on that niche and focus hard.

Thanks for these opinions all.

I can see the arguments both for and against wizards and gui query tools.

On the one hand I personally agree with the jcdreads and viggity. These sorts of interfaces are very difficult to get right and dilute the SQL focus.

On the other hand a number of people have suggested going this way, so people do think it would be useful.

I have no immediate plans to go this way but I intend to be responsive to what customers request.

Cheers

Re: Ask HN: Rate my Product : QueryCell

#13

Post by samh »

spooneybarger wrote: post #3

I don't use windows or excel but if i did, i would be getting interested in QueryCell. I am going to pass the url along to people I know who do. Does QueryCell work when excel is being run on a non-windows OS via wine? ( I assume not, but if it does, I know more people who might be interested ). -- Also, the video cut off for me in mid-sentence. I think you are missing the end. For me, it ended at with "if you would…

Thanks SpooneyBarger.

Re: Ask HN: Rate my Product : QueryCell

#14

Post by nfriedly »

It looks like a really great product, I might personally find some use for it.

When you're generating the table names, I think naming the table after the sheet it's on might be more intuitive than a single letter, especially when there's only one data range per sheet.

Re: Ask HN: Rate my Product : QueryCell

#15

Post by samh »

nfriedly wrote: post #14

It looks like a really great product, I might personally find some use for it. When you're generating the table names, I think naming the table after the sheet it's on might be more intuitive than a single letter, especially when there's only one data range per sheet.

Thanks for the suggestion, I will have a think about it.

The table names can be changed, you could click on the default letter name, 'A' for example, and rename it to SALES_NUMBERS for example.

I see the sense in using the worksheet name although there may be complications if there were multiple data regions on the same sheet or if the sheet name was long, as there isn't a huge amount of screen real-estate for the regions grid.

Thanks for the food for thought.

Re: Ask HN: Rate my Product : QueryCell

#16

Post by sfphotoarts »

"87 rows in 3 seconds" - performance could be a problem. Last time i used Excel I thought that you can already run sql on the data and if you need to really do that sort of thing you'd just export to sqlserver and do it there. I think this idea is the wrong market. Those that know sql will use sql against sqlserver as I just described, and those that don't spend countless hours in excel trying to use formulas.

sorry, I prefer to like start up ideas but this one just doesn't seem to have any legs in my mind.

Re: Ask HN: Rate my Product : QueryCell

#17

Post by samh »

sfphotoarts wrote: post #16

"87 rows in 3 seconds" - performance could be a problem. Last time i used Excel I thought that you can already run sql on the data and if you need to really do that sort of thing you'd just export to sqlserver and do it there. I think this idea is the wrong market. Those that know sql will use sql against sqlserver as I just described, and those that don't spend countless hours in excel trying to use formulas. sorry,…

Thanks for your honest opinion sfphotoarts.

I would say in defense that:

- The return time doesn't scale with the number of rows returned. I have just run a query that queried 6 tables, invoked numerous string concatenations, included 2 MOD functions, 2 RAND functions and returned 22,000 rows, it took 11 seconds. This is not up to database performance of course.

- There is a static overhead to running a query, and that's much greater in QueryCell than in a database directly.

- QueryCell is not meant to replace databases, just make life easier for people working in Excel.

It was pretty much the 'countless hours trying to use formulas' that made me think about QueryCell.

Cheers

Re: Ask HN: Rate my Product : QueryCell

#18

Post by christofd »

Seconded - this is a million dollar idea! Well defined niche, great product, very useful, very catchy name and branding (totally straight forward) - can't get any better than this.

Not sure how hard it is to create a Mac OS X version as well, but that would probably not be the initial target audience.

Re: Ask HN: Rate my Product : QueryCell

#20

Post by caffeine »

Feature Idea: Compile to "Vlookup" or compile to VBA.

In other words: I build a spreadsheet with QueryCell, but I want people who don't have QueryCell to be able to use it.

So I hit "Compile", and the program generates standard formulas using hlookup/vlookup and/or VBA so that the spreadsheet works for those who don't have the Plugin. (Of course it adds a link to "Built with QueryCell" :)

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