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Ask HN: Is there a fast/performant alternative to Excel?
I like using excel for quick analysis/calculations but I find it falls apart if you have like 100,000+ rows
Does any company make an alternative that can handle large amounts of data?
I don't need super fancy features, just the basics like being able to run a formula across a column or do pivot tables
I feel like there is an opportunity for a company to make something like this, even if it only supports a subset of excel features
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- SvenL 2y agoWell, there are the HPC Services for Excel, were you can offload calculations to an HPC Cluster and support more rows. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/high-performance-computing/excel-offloading-to-azure-cluster?view=hpc19-ps https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/high-performanc... its not an alternative, but maybe it helps for your use case.
- superconduct123 2y agoThat's cool but seems overkill for processing 100K-1 million rows I just feel like that is not really a lot of data for a single computer For example you could write a python script that loops over an array of a million values and runs a calculation like its nothing. Yet processing a column of 1M values in excel just falls apart and becomes really slow, even the UI becomes laggy Something about the implementation just can't handle that
- sargstuff 2y agoIt's the difference between the way things are accessed/handled behind the scenes in a spreadsheet vs. database[3][1b]. Adding a programming / scripting language isn't going to change exel data access patterns. One possible approach: Using excel as front end and storing actual data in database would speed things up. This assumes one uses 'python' on the database to do behind the scenes analysis[1] vs. moving complete excell worksheet(s) into / out of database[2]). Relevant background note: Spent quite a few years supporting researchers who were comfortable with excel; but the basic data requirements far exceeded what excel was capabile of handling (pre-analysis, 1-2milion excel cells). aka local machine access only, no remote / cloud stuff. --------------------------- [1] : a) excel with access database : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DbvcuE8ITA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DbvcuE8ITA b) excel with postgres : https://rowzero.io/blog/connect-postgresql-to-microsoft-excel https://rowzero.io/blog/connect-postgresql-to-microsoft-exce... [2] input/export excel data : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PxaTPZIYmc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PxaTPZIYmc [3] why database instead of excel : https://baserow.io/blog/database-instead-of-excel https://baserow.io/blog/database-instead-of-excel
- pixelrain 2y ago[dead]
- gregjor 2y agoA relational database. Excel data generally maps well to an RDBMS. You can run sqlite, MySQL, or PostgreSQL locally on a typical desktop/laptop. Excel can serve as the front-end to a “real” database.
- RGamma 2y agoUse PowerQuery/PowerPivot/DAX.
- gamegoblin 2y agoOur startup, rowzero.io, easily handles tens of millions of rows and is a subset of Excel. Leave us feedback in the app if there are any missing features you need.