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Show HN: Airtable, a real-time spreadsheet-database hybrid

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Re: Show HN: Airtable, a real-time spreadsheet-database hybrid

#121

Post by RA_Fisher »

aofstad wrote: post #28
Erwin wrote: post #20

Here's one use case: i tried importing a 500+ row wine spreadsheet into it (it has columns like type, producer, name, vintage, rating, source etc). I had to save the file as CSV and import it -- or at least that's what I thought, but filepicker seems to support picking from google drive. I don't know if it would have accepted a spreadsheet. Your app seems sluggish to scroll compared to Google Docs at that size, and t…

Thanks a lot for your feedback, these are definitely things we're looking to tackle. We're planning on improving scrolling performance soon, it's definitely a priority for us to improve our performance for large datasets. As for the linking, we definitely want to do more to help you normalize your data. We can also infer column types to help with the import process. Doing this type of thing on paste is an interesting…

Redis would be a good idea to move that data around.

Re: Show HN: Airtable, a real-time spreadsheet-database hybrid

#122

Post by RA_Fisher »

howsta wrote: post #67
mikeknoop wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reach out if you need any help on the Zapier front :)

Thanks! Will do. Been using Zapier personally for some misc personal workflow (receipts=>evernote=>email to our accountant). Love it!

Not sure what kind of back-end is accessible to users, but I bet Airtable could fit into this flow nicely: https://zapier.com/engineering/database-query-automation/

Re: Show HN: Airtable, a real-time spreadsheet-database hybrid

#123

Post by tptacek »

dang wrote: post #112
benackles wrote: post #103

Great execution! I wonder if this is what Paul Graham was envisioning when he wrote about a "web-based excel/database hybrid" in his post "Startup Ideas We'd Like to Fund"[1] in 2008. > 22. A web-based Excel/database hybrid. People often use Excel as a lightweight database. I suspect there's an opportunity to create the program such users wish existed, and that there are new things you could do if it were web-based.…

I wonder what language that makes it easy to keep data in linked lists he might have had in mind.

Obviously, C, where a linked list is the first library every new programmer learns to write.

Re: Show HN: Airtable, a real-time spreadsheet-database hybrid

#124

Post by syrnick »

KMag wrote: post #104

I don't suppose they've considered making IEEE 754-2008 decimal floating point numbers the default number representation. It's a shame Intel didn't consult Dr. William Kahan earlier in their design of the x87 floating point unit. At this point, binary floating point is deeply entrenched despite most uses outside of scientific modeling being better suited to decimal floating point. Most spreadsheet calculations are be…

We have :)

It's pretty hard to use a custom floating point representation that isn't supported as a primitive type. To make the matters worse even the standard binary floating point number doesn't map to JSON. E.g. +/- Inf and NaN don't have JSON representation.

We strive hard to provide intuitive user experience and abstract away the complexity of modern computing for non-technical users. At some point we might use a decimal floating point or better yet a fixed point decimal as the default representation for numbers.

Re: Show HN: Airtable, a real-time spreadsheet-database hybrid

#125

Post by ccath »

I read hacker news for a long time and decided to join just to congratulate you for this! I'm a developer and truly like the database aspect of the app. Linking tables is super easy and I like to organize some things in a certain way. Google Docs is not enough most of the time. Right now only need it for personal use and totally loving it! One thing I haven't figured out yet is how to do auto increment in keys. I'm also looking forward for the android version. I also have a suggestion but not sure if the direction you're going for. I'd love to be able to do stats. Being able to query the data in a certain way (besides filters), building the select statement.

Re: Show HN: Airtable, a real-time spreadsheet-database hybrid

#126

Post by tisakowi »

I have been looking for an easy-to-use cloud database and this looks like it!!!! I am kept being amazed at the lack of an app equivalent for MS Access. That is a very useful tool but not fit for the cloud/collaboration age. Kudos!!I think there are tons of people that will use it.

Re: Show HN: Airtable, a real-time spreadsheet-database hybrid

#127

Post by aofstad »

ccath wrote: post #125

I read hacker news for a long time and decided to join just to congratulate you for this! I'm a developer and truly like the database aspect of the app. Linking tables is super easy and I like to organize some things in a certain way. Google Docs is not enough most of the time. Right now only need it for personal use and totally loving it! One thing I haven't figured out yet is how to do auto increment in keys. I'm a…

Thank you! We don't do auto-increment keys but is something we're considering (or at least auto column types like date created). We will definitely be adding more analysis features soon. One thing you can do (which may not be too discoverable) is select a range of number cells in a column to get a summary at the bottom.

Re: Show HN: Airtable, a real-time spreadsheet-database hybrid

#128

Post by aofstad »

jonalmeida wrote: post #110

I just imported a movie list with the names and year into a table. I want to automagically import the description from IMDB. What would be the best way to do that without going fully into manual mode?

We don't do anything of this sort yet, but if you can get the data into a CSV you can import that into a table.

Re: Show HN: Airtable, a real-time spreadsheet-database hybrid

#130

Post by sedachv »

atheken wrote: post #117
Pxtl wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MS office has been non-optional for the workplace computer for decades, so any tool has to compete with "free-as-in-had-to-buy-it-anyways".

Access is great as a personal, single-user database, but how much software has been written to expand it past that limitation in small businesses? Also, Access isn't available for Mac. And Access doesn't run on your iPhone/iPad. I don't entirely disagree with your comment, but I do think there's room and demand in the market for something like AirTable. I've personally been dabbling with similar idea for years. Guess…

> Access is great as a personal, single-user database, but how much software has been written to expand it past that limitation in small businesses?

There were (and in all probability still are) many multi-user Access projects in use by small businesses.

> I don't entirely disagree with your comment, but I do think there's room and demand in the market for something like AirTable.

So you don't entirely disagree with a bunch of people who have failed to find this imaginary demand, but you think the demand is there? There is demand for business applications for verticals, and for general ERP functions like timesheets and payroll. The demand for an Access-like or "better spreadsheet" product is all of the "Oh yeah, it sounds cool" variety that never results in sales.

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