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Does Google sheets let you do anything like this?

cdolan 6y ago
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
- Closi 6y ago
  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...)
- ttul 6y ago
  Is it not, though? Google Sheets is available to all GSuite customers. GSuite is the most popular email hosting platform in the world, with roughly 18% market share (Microsoft 365 trails not significantly far behind). I think Google Sheets has a pretty solid user base.
  - cdolan 6y ago
    GSuite and Office 365 subscription base, while somewhat correlated to, is not equal to the usage of Excel vs Google Sheets. Highly anecdotal, but there are far more complex business processes still running in Excel that are not going to be translated over to Google sheets, and they are all offline behind a network firewall. Those types of sheets will really benefit from this improvement. Now if they just supported python instead of VBA for scripting!
- cpitman 6y ago
  As already pointed out, these are not the same. Javascript based custom functions in Google Sheets are actually really error prone, meaning that they will just _randomly fail to execute_. Cells will be stuck with a "loading..." message until you trick Sheets into recalculating the value. In the next couple months, I'll likely be ripping out as many custom functions as I can. And these are not for particularly complicated functions. I'd really love to have this feature in Sheets. It would simplify a lot of what my sheets do, and also make it more accessible to a Sheets power user that gets scared off from code.
TuringNYC 6y ago
That is literally how Google Sheets started (excel2web allowing lambda functions, hosted externally) before being acquired by Google.

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

Closi 6y ago
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...)
ttul 6y ago
Is it not, though? Google Sheets is available to all GSuite customers. GSuite is the most popular email hosting platform in the world, with roughly 18% market share (Microsoft 365 trails not significantly far behind). I think Google Sheets has a pretty solid user base.
- cdolan 6y ago
  GSuite and Office 365 subscription base, while somewhat correlated to, is not equal to the usage of Excel vs Google Sheets. Highly anecdotal, but there are far more complex business processes still running in Excel that are not going to be translated over to Google sheets, and they are all offline behind a network firewall. Those types of sheets will really benefit from this improvement. Now if they just supported python instead of VBA for scripting!
cpitman 6y ago
As already pointed out, these are not the same. Javascript based custom functions in Google Sheets are actually really error prone, meaning that they will just _randomly fail to execute_. Cells will be stuck with a "loading..." message until you trick Sheets into recalculating the value. In the next couple months, I'll likely be ripping out as many custom functions as I can. And these are not for particularly complicated functions. I'd really love to have this feature in Sheets. It would simplify a lot of what my sheets do, and also make it more accessible to a Sheets power user that gets scared off from code.

TuringNYC 6y ago

That is literally how Google Sheets started (excel2web allowing lambda functions, hosted externally) before being acquired by Google.