A spreadsheet for the Python Hacker

You can write a Python program or use a Jupyter Notebook to do almost anything. But you can also do a lot of things quickly using a spreadsheet. Grist is a "hacker" spreadsheet that merges these worlds. It looks like a spreadsheet, but underneath are SQLite tables, and the formula language is Python.

The code is open source and if you want it hosted, there are free and paid plans. You can even try it out without even logging in and start with a blank screen or use a template. You can see an introductory video below.

If you're good with spreadsheets, get ready. Grist isn't exactly a spreadsheet - it's more of a spreadsheet-like interface to a database. So if you have a row with a quantity and a price on it, you can add a column that calculates the total price. That's fine, but now you've done this for each row in the table. Depending on your perspective, this could be a feature. What if you want a grand total at the bottom? Then you add a widget which is actually a separate table.

You can fork spreadsheets and reconcile copies much like merging source-controlled programs. You can easily create dashboards and different views on data. For example, if you want to see which goat spawned which goat… there's an example for that. Since it's Hackaday, you might prefer a Morse code quiz.

Seems like a good balance between coding everything and the much-vaunted "no-code" tools floating around. Honestly, we could be just as comfortable with Jupyter. But the fact that it's a spreadsheet will make it more acceptable in some situations.

We love weird spreadsheet software. On the other hand, we also like to abuse traditional spreadsheets.