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Ask HN: What are your most common tasks and painpoints in spreadsheet software?

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Ask HN: What are your most common tasks and painpoints in spreadsheet software?

#1

Post by marttilaine »

Through a hobby project I've ended up implementing a spreadsheet app with support for lots of file formats (csv, tsv, json, ndjson, sqlite). The formula engine uses JS (e.g. the formula `max($('A1:A9'))` equals to excel formula `MAX(A1:A9)`. I also have a CLI which is capable of executing those JS formulas on files without the GUI.

It has been fun to code but I don't know where to take this project (if anywhere). Turning it into a polished app requires a significant time investment still.

Therefore I was wondering if there's some specific painpoints in the spreadsheet world that I could fix and provide a solution to the world via this app, since I have a solid starting point with it.

Re: Ask HN: What are your most common tasks and painpoints in spreadsheet software?

#2

Post by zero-sharp »

Getting Excel to interact directly with MySQL is ugly. Querying freezes up Excel because it's single threaded? I don't know how to overcome that problem.

Also I wish there was a spreadsheet software that was more closely connected with something modern like Python. I want to be able to lean on Python to perform calculation while I have a particular spreadsheet open. Maybe even insert Python code into cells. That's difficult to do with Excel. I have experimented with LibreOffice Calc, and it may be possible there.

VBA is okay for writing simple functions & macros. But I don't like using VBA for anything more complicated than that. Maybe I haven't taken enough time to learn it. But at the same time I feel like I'm creating hacks for a language which should already have the features I want. Somewhat related: you'll see people online recommending that you set your objects to Nothing in order for the garbage collection to work. I have no way of knowing if I actually have to do that and I don't like doing things for no reason.

Re: Ask HN: What are your most common tasks and painpoints in spreadsheet software?

#3

Post by apothegm »

My biggest pain point is inability (as in refusal, not failure) to open files with more than N rows even if plenty of memory is available. (I forget what the exact value of N is.) Especially annoyingly, this limitation didn’t seem to exist 20 years ago.

Re: Ask HN: What are your most common tasks and painpoints in spreadsheet software?

#4

Post by daneel951 »

zero-sharp wrote: post #2

Getting Excel to interact directly with MySQL is ugly. Querying freezes up Excel because it's single threaded? I don't know how to overcome that problem. Also I wish there was a spreadsheet software that was more closely connected with something modern like Python. I want to be able to lean on Python to perform calculation while I have a particular spreadsheet open. Maybe even insert Python code into cells. That's di…

Have you tried PYXLL (https://www.pyxll.com/)?

Is a commercial product to use Python inside Excel.

Re: Ask HN: What are your most common tasks and painpoints in spreadsheet software?

#5

Post by daneel951 »

apothegm wrote: post #3

My biggest pain point is inability (as in refusal, not failure) to open files with more than N rows even if plenty of memory is available. (I forget what the exact value of N is.) Especially annoyingly, this limitation didn’t seem to exist 20 years ago.

Power Pivot Excel add-inshould be able to manage million of rows.

See https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/data-model-specif... and https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/create-a-memory-e...

Re: Ask HN: What are your most common tasks and painpoints in spreadsheet software?

#6

Post by zero-sharp »

daneel951 wrote: post #4
zero-sharp wrote: post #2

Getting Excel to interact directly with MySQL is ugly. Querying freezes up Excel because it's single threaded? I don't know how to overcome that problem. Also I wish there was a spreadsheet software that was more closely connected with something modern like Python. I want to be able to lean on Python to perform calculation while I have a particular spreadsheet open. Maybe even insert Python code into cells. That's di…

Have you tried PYXLL ( https://www.pyxll.com/ )? Is a commercial product to use Python inside Excel.

I think you have to pay for it and I work for a small business.

Re: Ask HN: What are your most common tasks and painpoints in spreadsheet software?

#7

Post by apothegm »

daneel951 wrote: post #5
apothegm wrote: post #3

My biggest pain point is inability (as in refusal, not failure) to open files with more than N rows even if plenty of memory is available. (I forget what the exact value of N is.) Especially annoyingly, this limitation didn’t seem to exist 20 years ago.

Power Pivot Excel add-inshould be able to manage million of rows. See https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/data-model-specif... and https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/create-a-memory-e...

First off, that article seems to be specific to web versions and pivot tables. Secondly, yeah, a few million rows isn’t that much for some use cases. I have at times needed support for mid 9 figures.

Re: Ask HN: What are your most common tasks and painpoints in spreadsheet software?

#8

Post by brudgers »

Turning it into a polished app requires a significant time investment still.

Excel is the standard for a "polished" spreadsheet. It has been in development for about 40 years (since it was released in 1985) and has had the resources the most valuable company in the world can put into a flagship cash cow application.

It's-not-Excel is the primary pain point for all spreadsheet applications.

Documentation, training, third-party how-to's, etc. are one of the important ways that It's-not-Excel spreadsheets cause pain.

OK, sure the price of Excel is also a pain point and proprietary licenses are also one. But there might be very reasonable reasons for not focusing on users who prioritize those. Or not.

And Google Sheets and the Apple office suite already cost zero dollars, so there's that too.

Good luck.

Re: Ask HN: What are your most common tasks and painpoints in spreadsheet software?

#9

Post by edlinfan »

> Javascript

A quick note: your spreadsheet had better support arbitrary-precision currency math, if it doesn't already. That's table stakes for a spreadsheet.

To answer your real question, I'd suggest doubling down on the sqlite side and taking things in a relational direction. Spreadsheets are good at tracking 1:1 or 1:many relationships, but my spreadsheets inevitably grow in a many:many direction and I find myself wishing for queries and junction tables.

Re: Ask HN: What are your most common tasks and painpoints in spreadsheet software?

#10

Post by phonon »

edlinfan wrote: post #9

> Javascript A quick note: your spreadsheet had better support arbitrary-precision currency math, if it doesn't already. That's table stakes for a spreadsheet. To answer your real question, I'd suggest doubling down on the sqlite side and taking things in a relational direction. Spreadsheets are good at tracking 1:1 or 1:many relationships, but my spreadsheets inevitably grow in a many:many direction and I find mysel…

All major spreadsheets use double-precision floating-point throughout. I'm not sure where you got the impression they "support arbitrary-precision currency math".

In fact they even typically truncate or round the last few bits.

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