Coming from Excel

If you're an Excel power user ready to move beyond spreadsheet limits, Sigilweaver brings the repeatability and scalability you need while keeping data transformation visual and approachable.

Why Move from Excel to Sigilweaver?

What Excel Does Well

• Familiar interface for most business users
• Quick ad-hoc calculations and pivots
• Easy sharing with non-technical colleagues
• Built-in charting and formatting

Where Excel Struggles

• Row limits: 1,048,576 rows maximum - real datasets often exceed this
• Performance: Slows down with formulas across hundreds of thousands of rows
• Repeatability: Manual steps are hard to reproduce - copy/paste errors are common
• Version control: "final_v2_REVISED_latest.xlsx" is not sustainable
• Merging data: VLOOKUPs are fragile and break when column order changes

What Sigilweaver Adds

• No row limits - Process millions of rows efficiently
• Fast performance - Built on Polars (Rust), optimized for large datasets
• Repeatable workflows - Save your pipeline, run it on new data anytime
• Version control friendly - Workflows are text files, works with Git
• Robust joins - Joins don't break when data changes

Excel Concepts → Sigilweaver Equivalents

Excel Concept	Sigilweaver	Notes
Workbook	Workflow file	Saved pipeline (.swwf)
Sheet tab	Input tool	Load data from CSV, Parquet, Excel
Formula in column	Formula tool	Create calculated columns
Filter (Data tab)	Filter tool	Keep/remove rows by condition
Hide columns	Select tool	Choose which columns to keep
Sort (Data tab)	Sort tool	Order rows by column values
Pivot Table	Summarize tool	Group data and aggregate
VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP	Join tool	Combine two tables by key
Copy/Paste to stack data	Union tool	Stack datasets vertically
Save As	Output tool	Save results to file

Common Excel Tasks in Sigilweaver

Loading Data

Excel:
Open file → Data loads into sheet

Sigilweaver:
Drag Input tool → Pick your file → Preview data

Pro tip: Sigilweaver can load CSV, Parquet, and Excel files. For large datasets, use CSV or Parquet for better performance.

Filtering Rows

Excel:
Select header row → Data → Filter → Click dropdown → Choose values

Sigilweaver:
Drag Filter tool → Write expression like pl.col("sales") > 1000

Key difference: Excel uses clickable filters. Sigilweaver uses expressions - more powerful and repeatable. See Expressions Guide.

Creating Calculated Columns

Excel:
Click cell in new column → Type formula like =A2*B2 → Drag down

Sigilweaver:
Drag Formula tool → Expression: pl.col("price") * pl.col("quantity") → Name the output column (e.g., revenue)

Advantage: No dragging formulas down thousands of rows - the expression applies to the entire column automatically.

Removing/Selecting Columns

Excel:
Right-click column → Hide OR Select columns → Copy → Paste to new sheet

Sigilweaver:
Drag Select tool → Check columns to keep → Configure rename or reorder if needed

Sorting Data

Excel:
Select data → Data → Sort → Choose column and order

Sigilweaver:
Drag Sort tool → Configure columns and ascending/descending order

Pivot Tables (Grouping and Aggregating)

Excel:
Insert → Pivot Table → Drag fields to Rows/Values → Choose aggregation

Sigilweaver:
Drag Summarize tool → Set columns to "Group By" → Choose aggregation (Sum, Mean, Count, etc.) for each metric

Advantage: Sigilweaver aggregations are part of the repeatable pipeline - no need to rebuild the pivot table on new data.

VLOOKUP / XLOOKUP (Joining Tables)

Excel:
=VLOOKUP(A2, Sheet2!A:C, 3, FALSE) or =XLOOKUP(A2, Sheet2!A:A, Sheet2!C:C)

Sigilweaver:
Drag Join tool → Wire left (L) and right (R) inputs → Configure join keys → Get three outputs: matched (J), unmatched left (L), unmatched right (R)

Advantage:

• No formula errors if column order changes
• See unmatched rows explicitly (no #N/A to hunt down)
• Faster on large datasets

Stacking Data (Copy/Paste from Multiple Sheets)

Excel:
Copy data from Sheet1 → Paste below data in Sheet2 → Repeat for each sheet

Sigilweaver:
Drag Union tool → Wire multiple Input tools to it → Data stacks automatically

Your First Workflow

Let's replicate a common Excel task: load sales data, filter for completed orders, calculate revenue, and create a summary by region.

Steps:

1. Load sales data:

   • Drag Input tool to canvas
   • Pick your CSV/Excel file
   • Click tool to preview data

2. Filter for completed orders:

   • Drag Filter tool, wire from Input
   • Expression: pl.col("order_status") == "completed"
   • Use the T (true) output for next step

3. Calculate revenue:

   • Drag Formula tool, wire from Filter's T output
   • Expression: pl.col("price") * pl.col("quantity")
   • Output column name: revenue

4. Summarize by region:

   • Drag Summarize tool, wire from Formula
   • Set region to Group By
   • Set revenue to Sum
   • Set order_id to Count (for order count)

5. Save results:

   • Drag Output tool, wire from Summarize
   • Choose format (Excel, CSV, or Parquet)
   • Pick output location and execute

Now you have a repeatable pipeline. Next month, load new data into the same workflow and execute - no manual steps.

Key Mental Shifts from Excel

1. Formulas Apply to Entire Columns

In Excel, you write =A2*B2 and drag down. In Sigilweaver, you write pl.col("price") * pl.col("quantity") once and it applies to all rows automatically.

2. No Manual Steps

Excel workflows often involve clicking, filtering, copying, pasting. Sigilweaver workflows are entirely repeatable - load new data, execute, done.

3. Data Stays in Files

Excel loads data into the application. Sigilweaver processes data from files and saves results back to files - data never "lives" in the application.

4. Expressions Instead of Cell References

Excel formulas use cell references (A2, B5). Sigilweaver uses column names:

# Excel: =A2*B2
# Sigilweaver: 
pl.col("price") * pl.col("quantity")

The Expressions Guide covers everything you need.

When to Use Excel vs. Sigilweaver

Use Excel when:

• Dataset is under 100,000 rows
• You need quick ad-hoc analysis
• You need formatted reports with charts
• You're sharing with people who only know Excel

Use Sigilweaver when:

• Dataset is large (millions of rows)
• You repeat the same steps monthly/weekly
• You need complex joins or unions
• You want reproducible, version-controlled pipelines

Use both:

• Sigilweaver for data preparation → Save to Excel → Deliver formatted reports in Excel

Next Steps

• Interface Guide - Learn the visual canvas and workflow building
• Expressions Basics - Master Polars expressions (like Excel formulas, but for columns)
• Tools Reference - Detailed docs for every tool

Excel is great for what it does, but when you hit its limits, Sigilweaver is the next step. The visual workflow keeps things approachable, and expressions give you the power to handle complex transformations at scale.