I Built FormulaAI: Generate Excel Formulas from Plain English Using AI

Maker Labs — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 14:32:29 +0000

The Problem
Anyone who works with Excel regularly knows the frustration: you need a complex formula combining SUMIF with text functions like MID, LEFT, or CONCATENATE, maybe throw in some VLOOKUP, and suddenly you're juggling nested parentheses, trying to remember the exact syntax, and debugging why your formula returns #VALUE! instead of the answer you need.
A simple task like "sum all values in column A where column B says 'Approved'" should take seconds, not minutes of Googling syntax and counting parentheses.
After spending too much time wrestling with Excel formulas instead of actually working with my data, I decided there had to be a better way.

The Solution
That's why I built FormulaAI - an AI-powered tool that generates Excel formulas from plain English descriptions.
Just describe what you want to do in natural language, and get the exact formula you need in seconds.

How It Works
FormulaAI uses AI to understand your intent and translate it into proper Excel syntax. It handles:

Complex conditional logic (SUMIF, COUNTIF, IF statements)
Text manipulation (MID, LEFT, RIGHT, CONCATENATE)
Lookups and references (VLOOKUP, INDEX/MATCH)
Date and time calculations
Nested functions with proper parentheses matching
Array formulas

For example:
You say: "Sum all values in column A where column B says 'Approved'"
FormulaAI gives you: =SUMIF(B:B,"Approved",A:A)
You say: "Count how many times 'John' appears in column C"
FormulaAI gives you: =COUNTIF(C:C,"John")

The tool works for both Excel and Google Sheets - the formulas are compatible with both platforms.

Why I Built This
After 20+ years working with industrial automation and data systems, I've spent countless hours building spreadsheets for everything from process monitoring to financial analysis. The frustration of remembering exact function syntax, dealing with nested parentheses, and debugging formula errors never went away.
Whether you're:

Building financial models
Analyzing data sets
Creating automated reports
Learning Excel formulas
Working under time pressure

FormulaAI saves time and eliminates syntax errors. Instead of spending minutes (or longer) constructing complex formulas with multiple nested functions and ensuring all parentheses match correctly, you describe what you need and get a working formula instantly.

Tech Stack
Frontend: HTML/CSS/JavaScript
Backend: Node.js/Express
AI: Major LLM API
Auth: Google OAuth
Hosting: Vercel

Features
✅ 3 free formula generations without login
✅ More daily formulas when you sign in with Google
✅ Works for Excel and Google Sheets
✅ Instant generation - get formulas in seconds
✅ Live demo on the homepage to try before signing up

Try It Out

The tool is live at: getformulaai.com
No credit card required - just describe your formula in plain English and see the magic happen.
I'd love your feedback! What Excel formulas do you struggle with most? What features would make this more useful for your workflow?

Example Use Cases
Financial Analysis:
"Calculate the average of column D where column E is greater than 1000"
→ =AVERAGEIF(E:E,">1000",D:D)

Data Validation:
"Check if the value in A2 exists anywhere in column F"
→ =COUNTIF(F:F,A2)>0

Text Manipulation:
"Extract the first 5 characters from cell B2"
→ =LEFT(B2,5)

Conditional Logic:
"If C2 is greater than 100, multiply by 0.9, otherwise keep the original value"
→ =IF(C2>100,C2*0.9,C2)

Tags: #excel #googlesheets #productivity #ai #spreadsheets #automation #devtools #webdev

I Built SQLTranslate: An AI-Powered Tool to Convert SQL Between Database Dialects

Maker Labs — Thu, 04 Dec 2025 13:54:51 +0000

The Problem
As developers, we've all been there - you're migrating from MySQL to PostgreSQL, or inheriting a project that uses Oracle when your team works in SQL Server. Manually converting SQL queries between database dialects is tedious, error-prone, and time-consuming. Each database has its own syntax quirks, function names, and date handling approaches.
I've spent countless hours converting DATE_SUB() to NOW() - INTERVAL, fixing quote styles, and hunting down documentation for equivalent functions across different SQL flavors. There had to be a better way.

The Solution
That's why I built SQLTranslate - an AI-powered tool that translates SQL queries between five major database dialects:

MySQL
PostgreSQL
SQLite
SQL Server
Oracle

Just paste your query, select the source and target dialects, and get an accurate translation in seconds. The tool even provides helpful translation notes explaining what changed and why.

How It Works
SQLTranslate uses AI to understand not just the syntax differences, but the semantic meaning of your queries. It handles:

Date and time functions
String manipulation
Aggregation functions
Join syntax variations
Database-specific features
Quote and identifier conventions

For example, converting this MySQL query:
SELECT user_id, username,
COUNT(o.order_id) AS total_orders,
IFNULL(SUM(o.amount), 0) AS total_spent
FROM users u
LEFT JOIN orders o ON u.user_id = o.user_id
WHERE u.created_at > DATE_SUB(NOW(), INTERVAL 30 DAY)
GROUP BY u.user_id, u.username
LIMIT 10;

PostgreSQL Translation:
SELECT
u.user_id,
u.username,
COUNT(o.order_id) AS total_orders,
COALESCE(SUM(o.amount), 0) AS total_spent
FROM users u
LEFT JOIN orders o ON u.user_id = o.user_id
WHERE u.created_at >= NOW() - INTERVAL '30 days'
GROUP BY u.user_id, u.username
LIMIT 10;

The tool automatically:

Changed IFNULL() to COALESCE()
Converted DATE_SUB(NOW(), INTERVAL 30 DAY) to (NOW() - INTERVAL '30 DAY')
Adjusted the interval literal format for PostgreSQL

Why I Built This
After 20+ years working with industrial automation and database systems, I've seen how much time teams waste on database migrations. Whether you're:

Migrating legacy systems to modern databases
Working across multiple client environments
Prototyping in SQLite and deploying to PostgreSQL
Converting vendor-specific queries

SQLTranslate saves hours of manual work and reduces errors.

Try It Out
The tool is live at: sqltranslate.makerlabssv.com
I'd love your feedback! What database dialects do you work with most? What SQL conversion challenges have you faced?

Tags: #sql #database #postgresql #mysql #devtools #ai #opensource #webdev #productivity

DEV Community: Maker Labs

I Built FormulaAI: Generate Excel Formulas from Plain English Using AI

I Built SQLTranslate: An AI-Powered Tool to Convert SQL Between Database Dialects