I recently came across [this HN discussion](
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42941143) about probabilistic spreadsheets and learned about [Montesheet](
https://blog.singleton.io/posts/2021-11-24-probabilistic-spr...) ([GitHub](
https://github.com/dps/montesheet)). I thought the idea was fascinating, so I built my own Python-based version: *Probability-Spreadsheet*.
It works like a regular spreadsheet but allows you to enter probability distributions instead of fixed values. You can type formulas like `=normal(10,2)` or `=uniform(0,5)`, and the spreadsheet will generate and visualize the possible outcomes. Instead of just getting a single number, you can see a range of possible results, with built-in graphs to help interpret the data.
Features:
- Basic spreadsheet operations (cell references, formulas, arithmetic)
- Support for probability distributions
- Automatically updates when you recalculate
- Small charts in the cells to visualize uncertainty
- Save and load spreadsheets in XML
It's still a proof of concept, but I’d love to hear feedback or ideas for improvement.
GitHub: https://github.com/Topping1/probability-spreadsheet
