Comment by davidpolberger
10 days ago
I'm working on an engine for Excel-like formulas, which will be available both as a library and as a service (which I've mentioned on HN a few times before). I originally started work on the engine back in 2008, when our app builder needed it.
This is a wheel I see people reinventing all the time, often for use in SaaS applications. The implementations are often underwhelming: function support is limited, documentation is sparse to non-existent and errors are typically only communicated at runtime -- if at all. Formula editors usually lack autocomplete, making them frustrating to use.
I've spent years solving all these problems (with a statically-typed language), and I'd love for others to benefit from the work. I have extracted the formula engine from our app compiler, so the library is nearly complete. The runtime part (evaluating formulas) has been rewritten in TypeScript. Next, I'll build a service around it to validate, compile and evaluate formulas -- which should be fun.
I'm planning to do a Show HN once I have a preview up and running.
Is this like gorules?
No, not really. GoRules appears to be a decision engine that allows non-technical users to define rules visually through a graphical interface. Engineers can then interpret and evaluate these rules using provided libraries.
What I'm building is a formula engine that validates, compiles, and evaluates Excel-like formulas. Compared to GoRules, it’s more akin to the ZEN expression language component than to the broader GoRules system.
Other apt comparisons to what I'm building include HyperFormula and Microsoft Power Fx.
As a HyperFormula founder, thank you for the mention. I wonder what’s your opinion on our formula library
very cool