
Show HN: I built an Excel plugin for the SQL enthusiast - anakic
http://www.thingiequery.com
======
anakic
The project was initially a hobby but as of this month is my full time
occupation.

So the plugin is called ThingieQuery, and it's basically for people who spend
time in Excel and are familiar with SQL. The point is to make working in
spreadsheets easier, possibly even enjoyable...somewhat.

The database engine that does all the heavy lifting is SQLite, it has access
to Excel tables through an adapter layer I built, and it can also call VBA
functions (you can call them from your SQL queries).

I'm particularly happy with my own SQL parser that I built for it. I use in
the editor so it now understands SQL and can do all the things the big boy sql
tools can:

\- pretty decent code completion (it's context sensitive in what it offers,
offers keywords as well as identifiers, understands aliases, derived tables,
common table expressions)

\- error detection (syntax errors, undefined symbols, some semantic errors)

\- function insights (shows function documentation and parameter info while
typing)

\- SQL auto-formatting

\- a few other things (star expansion, symbol disambiguation, bracket
matching, same reference symbol highlighting)

So anyway, take a look and ideally try it. Feedback is appreciated and most
welcome.

