Lambda: Turn Excel formulas into custom functions • Hacker News Board

Re: Lambda: Turn Excel formulas into custom functions

#11

Post by bitwize » Sun, Dec 06, 2020, 5:39 PM UTC

geocar wrote: post #9

I love the branding "custom functions without code" right before a bunch of code. Reminds me how early word processors (the person, not the software) were convinced to program word processors (the software this time) just by calling the programs "macros". I'm not joining Microsoft's beta program right now, but I'm curious if anyone knows the data type of a =LAMBDA?

In the 1970s, secretaries wrote their own extensions to Emacs in Lisp. They were only ever told they were "customizing" the editor, not programming it!

(This was Multics Emacs, a predecessor to GNU Emacs.)

Re: Lambda: Turn Excel formulas into custom functions

#12

Post by lambda_obrien » Sun, Dec 06, 2020, 5:40 PM UTC

bombcar wrote: post #4

rajandatta wrote: post #2

This is extremely significant to simplifying spreadsheets.

I see it making spreadsheets easier to convert into code, too. Many “business programs” begin as a spreadsheet.

We have services which run a "notebook as a service" so it's not too far fetched to think of Microsoft doing this with Excel spreadsheets. I bet it would take the business world by storm and would be a good move.

Re: Lambda: Turn Excel formulas into custom functions

#13

Post by cdolan » Sun, Dec 06, 2020, 5:41 PM UTC

ryanmarsh wrote: post #8

Does Google sheets let you do anything like this?

Yes it supports JavaScript functions that can be called in the formula bar.

However Google sheets is nowhere the install base of excel, so this is a really big deal

Re: Lambda: Turn Excel formulas into custom functions

#14

Post by toomuchtodo » Sun, Dec 06, 2020, 5:42 PM UTC

ryanmarsh wrote: post #7

dsalzman wrote: post #5

I hope they add an import and export function to this. Ideally you could sync these functions at an org level via O365.

Then you need version control. Better to let the document be the boundary of consistency.

Or support versioning using GitHub! Excel has always been a powerful repl, these extensions are leveling it up.

Re: Lambda: Turn Excel formulas into custom functions

#15

Post by JoBrad » Sun, Dec 06, 2020, 5:51 PM UTC

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #10

They sort of already had this with the old style pre-VBA Excel macros.

This might be better, though. Because it lets you use the same spreadsheet functions, in the spreadsheet. It would be trivial to make a lamdha function that encapsulates several spreadsheet functions into one.

Re: Lambda: Turn Excel formulas into custom functions

#16

Post by croes » Sun, Dec 06, 2020, 6:14 PM UTC

Yeah, let's make the moloch even more unmaintainable. Does still have the leap year error to be compatible with Lotus?

Re: Lambda: Turn Excel formulas into custom functions

#17

Post by geogra4 » Sun, Dec 06, 2020, 6:18 PM UTC

toomuchtodo wrote: post #14

ryanmarsh wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then you need version control. Better to let the document be the boundary of consistency.

Or support versioning using GitHub! Excel has always been a powerful repl, these extensions are leveling it up.

This would make Excel 100x more maintainable. I would think a nice Github integration would turn excel closer to a maintainable programming language.

Re: Lambda: Turn Excel formulas into custom functions

#18

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Dec 06, 2020, 6:22 PM UTC

geogra4 wrote: post #17

toomuchtodo wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or support versioning using GitHub! Excel has always been a powerful repl, these extensions are leveling it up.

This would make Excel 100x more maintainable. I would think a nice Github integration would turn excel closer to a maintainable programming language.

[deleted]

Re: Lambda: Turn Excel formulas into custom functions

#19

Post by Closi » Sun, Dec 06, 2020, 6:32 PM UTC

cdolan wrote: post #13

ryanmarsh wrote: post #8

Does Google sheets let you do anything like this?

Yes it supports JavaScript functions that can be called in the formula bar. However Google sheets is nowhere the install base of excel, so this is a really big deal

Excel already has the ability to write custom functions in Javascript (and VBA), this is the ability to write them in the formula language rather than JavaScript.

(So no, Google Sheets does not support this)

The latest improvements in Excel really do seem to be re-widening the gap between Google Sheets and Excel (Dynamic array formulas, Let, Custom data types, powerquery improvements...)

Re: Lambda: Turn Excel formulas into custom functions

#20

Post by protomyth » Sun, Dec 06, 2020, 6:32 PM UTC

bitwize wrote: post #11

geocar wrote: post #9

I love the branding "custom functions without code" right before a bunch of code. Reminds me how early word processors (the person, not the software) were convinced to program word processors (the software this time) just by calling the programs "macros". I'm not joining Microsoft's beta program right now, but I'm curious if anyone knows the data type of a =LAMBDA?

In the 1970s, secretaries wrote their own extensions to Emacs in Lisp. They were only ever told they were "customizing" the editor, not programming it! (This was Multics Emacs, a predecessor to GNU Emacs.)

"Customizing" is something everyone loves to do in a lot of aspects of our lives. Programming is for those weirdos in IT. Building stacks in HyperCard wasn't programming either it was just writing interactive presentations.