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Show HN: Frockly – A visual editor for understanding complex Excel formulas

56 points by jack_ruru ↗ HN
I built a visual editor that represents Excel formulas as blocks, making it easier to inspect, refactor, and reason about complex formulas structurally. Frockly is not an Excel replacement. It focuses on understanding and refactoring formulas before bringing them back to Excel. Demo: https://ryuu12358.github.io/Frockly/ GitHub: https://github.com/ryuu12358/Frockly Write-up: https://note.com/ryuu12358/n/naa65d9d5facd （Japanese）

15 comments

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leobg
Thanks for sharing.

I often have this problem in Google Sheets. So far, i’ve resorted to copying the formula into Sublime Text and then splitting it into multiple lines. Your editor looks much more intuitive.

As demo, it would be nice if one could press a button to load some real data abd formulas. I’m reading HN on my phone. I guess many people do. Coming up with a formula and example data is an extra hurdle, and doing it using just a thumb and dumb autocorrect doubly so.

I did see the screenshots on GitHub. Thumbs up for those!

jimnotgym
I use Excel a lot, and run a team that use it more. One of biggest tips I give is to not write complex formulae if you can help it. Split it into more cells, so it goes step by step. It looks less cool, but when you have to edit it in 6 months you will thank me.

It is not always possible, of course. But it normally is. For the edge cases a helper like this must be nice. Maybe some fields have lots of edge cases, mine has few.

gabrielsroka
The animated gifs on your readme are completely useless. They change way too fast to read and there's no way to pause it.

Either make it a video so you can pause it or just have static screenshots without animation.

jack_ruru
That’s fair feedback — I’ll add static screenshots or a slower demo. Thanks for pointing it out.
SuperNinKenDo
I'm one of those sick, sad puppies that enjoys Excel shenanigans. Haven't been able to trst it out since I'm on my phone, but screenshots look promising, I look forward to trying it out.
remark5396
This made me wonder, why there is no syntax highlighting support for Excel? I've never thought about that before.
radial_symmetry
Very cool, it is so easy to get lost in Excel formulas and I am amazed that something like this hasn't been built into Excel already!

I noticed there is no license on the Github, do you intend for this to be open source?

jack_ruru
Good catch — I’ve added an MIT license to the repository. Thanks for pointing it out.
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montesito
This is a great job! I like it. Congratulations. And thanks for sharing it. I have made lots of improvements and I would like to share with you if you accept. How?
jack_ruru
Thanks! Please feel free to open an issue or a PR on GitHub. I’d be happy to discuss improvements there.
jack_ruru
Thanks for all the comments! I just added mobile view support and updated the README based on the feedback.
phonon
Seems similar to https://github.com/Nekomajin42/spreadsheet-blocks ?
jack_ruru
Yes, they’re related in spirit — thanks for the link!

Spreadsheet-blocks focuses more on building spreadsheets visually, while Frockly is primarily about inspecting and refactoring existing Excel formulas and making their structure explicit.

I think they’re exploring adjacent but slightly different problems.

jack_ruru
Larger update since the last post:

– Added the i18n foundation – Introduced an initial French translation – Implemented URL parameter support for loading state and navigation

Thanks again for the feedback — it directly influenced this refactor.