sheet2sql
why sheet2sql

Why Sheet2SQL?

Spreadsheets run the world

Spreadsheets are everywhere. Their flexibility and low barrier to entry make them the place where a lot of business data and logic live. Many companies rely on Excel as both a database and calculation engine, storing key metrics, models, and decisions.

But that same flexibility has a cost: raw inputs mix with formulas, tables aren’t explicit, and dependencies are hidden in cell references. As a result, workbooks are rarely structured in a way machines can understand.

LLMs don't understand spreadsheets

LLMs can’t handle spreadsheets because they require structured inputs and explicit logic. Parsing an Excel file is not as simple as dumping its cells and formulas into markdown—spreadsheets structure data in an inefficient way, with complex formulas duplicated across thousands of cells and logic referenced only by opaque Excel ranges.

Without deeper structure and context, models can misinterpret dependencies, hallucinate relationships, or overlook key inputs.

Spreadsheets are messy

Spreadsheets rarely contain tidy, structured data. Instead, they often include things like:

  • Implicit logic and hidden dependencies
  • Interleaved inputs and computed values
  • Formatting that conveys semantics (whitespace, bold, color...)
  • Non-rectangular tables
  • Long/wide sheets that lead to context explosion
  • Human-oriented artifacts: merged cells, decorative/hierarchical/multi-line headers, notes, comments...

SQL is great

SQL is the de facto data query language because:

  • It's reproducible, traceable, auditable
  • It's version-controllable
  • It encourages tidy tables and good modeling practices
  • It scales to bigger data and downstream tools

Plus, LLMs have been trained on lots of SQL code, which makes them excel at it.

Let an agent do it

We let an AI agent do the hard work:

  1. 1

    Readthe sheets

  2. 2

    Understandstructure and logic

  3. 3

    Tidytables and single values

  4. 4

    Modeldependencies and dataflow

  5. 5

    Translateformulas to SQL

  6. 6

    Verifyresults match Excel

Check out How does Sheet2SQL work? for a detailed explanation.

Use cases

There are two main use cases:

  • As a migration tool to move from old, unreliable, Excel-based reports to modern, SQL-based data pipelines
  • The missing layer for LLMs to understand spreadsheets

Try it out

Drag-and-drop the sales.xlsx demo file in sheet2sql.com and click Generate SQL to see the agent in action.

Want to try it out with your own spreadsheets? Send an email to contact@sheet2sql.com to join the private beta.