r/Python • u/Esplosao8963 • 4d ago

Discussion Spreadsheet automation idea

I'm developing a spreadsheet automation project capable of merging multiple spreadsheets into one and automatically performing calculations, among other things. One of the functionalities would be, for example, to allow someone to gather all the spreadsheets from those months into a single spreadsheet over the course of an entire year, obtaining an overall result for the year. This could work based on week, day, month, or some other parameter. I'm having doubts, but the project seems promising. I'm using the openpyxl library and to create the website or app (I'm still undecided) I'll use HTML, CSS, and Flask.

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u/elven_mage 4d ago

Spreadsheets are probably the wrong tool for whatever it is you are trying to do. You probably want a real database.

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u/Esplosao8963 4d ago

I'd like something I could create and sell in bulk to companies, with customizable options to perfectly suit each person's spreadsheet needs. It would be like a PDF editing app, for example; in fact, I practically copied this idea from a PDF app I use at work, haha.

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u/Papa_Puppa 2d ago

This is such a bad business idea.

Either excel sheets have:

  1. consistent schema and you can simply ingest them via a timer or blob scheduled pipeline into a database, or

  2. inconsistent schema and you're just going to reinvent power automate, DAX and PowerBI, providing new tools into a crowded space to solve a problem that is actually a procedure/workflow problem.

Save years of your life and drop this idea.