A system and method to translate natural language descriptions to programs in a domain-specific language for spreadsheets. The method includes generating a model of a spreadsheet. The model includes a column description for each column, and one or more types associated with each column. The method also includes normalizing the description by removing stop words, and replacing parts that match column names or data values by parameterized place-holders. The method involves applying rule-based translation along with keyword or type-based program synthesis in an inter-leaved, bottom-up manner and dynamic programming style, where phrases are mapped to sub-programs in increasing order of their length. The rules describe how to map a specific partial natural language phrase into a partial sub-program. Also, the method includes generating a number of potential programs and ranking the programs to sequence them according to their intended likelihood.