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4 Comments

Analyze Data via Plain-English? "Google translate for data"

Hello! I'm a software & data engineer looking to build a solution to a recurring problem I've noticed. I'm looking for feedback on my idea...

Name: No2SQL (get it? :)

Problem: Many people want to analyze their data but don't have time to learn complex data analysis syntax/excel tricks.

Solution: Create a web-app tool that, using Natural Language Interface to DataBases (NLIDB), translates plain English to several matching SQL queries, and displays results. "Google translate for data" "Just say no to SQL"

Example: Jane Doe is a manager of a sales team and wants to see the top 5 salespeople on her team. Her only dataset is a CSV of sales from the past month.

Current Solution:
Jane writes a SQL query that looks something like this:
"""SELECT * FROM(SELECT salesperson, SUM(sales) as sales FROM sales_table
GROUP BY salesperson)
ORDER BY sales DESC
LIMIT 5"""
OR Jane uses pivot tables on excel.

My Solution:
Jane enters in her plain-english query "top 5 salespeople by sales" or "who sold the most this month?" as well as a link to the Google spreadsheet where the CSV is hosted and it automatically returns the correct response.

Who this is for (target audience):
Data Analysts, managers, executives who want to quickly ask their data questions. About 7 million people use SQL on a frequent basis, and 5-10 million use pandas frequently. I would build the front-end to be very simplistic and inviting for novice data analysts.

Who this ISN'T for:
SQL and/or excel masters who want to perform extremely complex queries.

Thinking Big:
If we open up API access, amazing applications could be built with the underlying technology. For example, a Slack bot where people easily ask questions about their data without ever seeing it.

Okay: time for some constructive criticism. Thank you in advance!

on June 7, 2021
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    I'm torn on this. I like the idea of providing a file and question and getting an answer. No fiddling with excel or SQL. However I'm not sure about the scope of problems this can solve. That's something to validate with real users. Also I'm not sure if software like Tableau or a in-house developed dashboard doesn't provide a solution.

    1. 2

      Thank you for your reply! I've looked into existing solutions and the only credible and potential one I could find was an incoming add-on to Tableau.

      And yeah, I'm hoping to test this with users soon...I'm really trying to cater this to professionals who want to quickly get answers from their data, but don't necessarily have the time to learn SQL syntax.

      1. 1

        Please share the mvp.

        1. 2

          Will do! Thank you for your feedback!