Coding an app .. Excel or Google Sheets or Python?

April 20, 2020 10:45 AM

I want to make an app or spreadsheet to enter and wrangle some numbers into particular arrangements, on an Android or Apple pad. Will this be possible in Excel or Sheets, and if it is, which would be easier to code, or would a Python app be more straightforward? (I know neither spreadsheet nor Python well, but I'm a retired programmer ready to try to figure it out so any & all hints, clues and advice will be *very* much appreciated: my coding brain is rusty! If python will be best, what UI would it use on a pad?).

The numbers are sizes and quantities of pieces of parts (parts are numbered, pieces are identified only by size). There may be tens of pieces up to a few hundred. They must be entered and shown as fractions not decimals; smallest fractions are sixteenths (for simplicity I'm only using quarters below).

The numbers will be entered per part (i.e. with numeric labels). E.g.

Parts list

    Part  count  width  length
     1      3      2¾     32
     1      1      1      32
     1      2      2½     10¼

     2      1      1¾     32
     2      1      2      10

     3      1      2      13¼
     3      1      3      83

etc.
giving a four-column display.

When all numbers have been entered (or preferably, continually as the pieces are added to the list), a second set of four columns needs to be generated/updated and shown alongside the first set of columns, where the numbers are sorted by width then by length, like this:

      ORDERED BY PART                         ORDERED BY SIZE
    Part count width length              Part count width length
     1     3     2¾    32                 3     1     3     83
     1     1     1     32                 1     3     2¾    32
     1     2     2½    10¼                1     2     2½    10¼
     2     1     1¾    32                 3     1     2     13¼
     2     1     2     10                 2     1     2     10
     3     1     2     13¼                2     1     1¾    32
     3     1     3     83                 1     1     1     32

The next step is to be able to click on any part in the second "ordered by size" set and have that part highlighted in the first "Parts list" columns.

      ORDERED BY PART                         ORDERED BY SIZE
    Part count width length              Part count width length
     1     3     2¾    32                 3     1     3     83
     1     1     1     32                 1     3     2¾    32
     1     2     2½    10¼                1     2     2½    10¼
     2     1     1¾    32                 3     1     2     13¼ 
     2     1     2     10                 2     1     2     10
     3     1     2     13¼                2     1     1¾    32
     3     1     3     83                 1     1     1     32

The final desire is to be able to select any individual part to note it's been made and have its appearance change in both lists (e.g. made parts could be green, the ones yet to be stay black .. can't illustrate that here)

posted by anadem to Computers & Internet (3 answers total)

You might want to look into Office Add-ins. They're Microsoft's Office extension technology du jour. They're written with web technologies (JavaScript/TypeScript and HTML+CSS) but they can talk with server-side components written in any language, and they work on most Office platforms including iOS.
posted by ripley_ at 10:54 AM on April 20, 2020 [1 favorite]

Check out Airtable, which has a bunch of "no-code" features, as well as options to make it more customized.
posted by tinymegalo at 2:57 PM on April 20, 2020 [1 favorite]

Here is a link to a mockup in Google Sheets. If you open it in two windows side-by-side, you can display the "by part" sheet in one and the "by size" sheet in the other and see one update the other when you check the boxes.
posted by Phssthpok at 5:57 PM on April 20, 2020 [2 favorites]