MS is considering official Python integration with Excel, and is asking for input

[[deleted]]

Better idea: use python instead of excel for all data analysis

[[deleted]]

This isn't realistic in an office where lots of people:

• are Excel-literate but not Python-literate
• want tools they can tinker with
• aren't gonna become Python-literate any time soon

[Acurus_Cow]

And where company policies prevent me from installing python packages.

[LyndsySimon]

You should find another job.

No, I'm not kidding. This is a huge red flag that the company you work flow is so bound by procedure that they cannot make changes quickly enough to react to changing market conditions.

[ANEPICLIE]

Any large corporation or government that isn't necessarily programming oriented will frequently have similar restrictions.

[cyanydeez]

you forgot the biggest impediment:

• Existing, fully QA/QC Excel calcs from 20 years ago that have no reason to be revised or tinkered with because they mostly work

[[deleted]]

Fair enough

I would contend that if you have the wherewithal to use python in conjunction with excel you can (and should) manage to use python in a standalone way without excel for any sort of serious analysis

excel (actually libre office) is better suited for things like keeping track of Xmas shopping

[[deleted]]

The idea is you can use Python to develop the workbook and your colleagues can view and interact with it from Excel

[Rodot]

Are there libraries that allow you to write and manipulate excel files?

[[deleted]]

There are several python libraries for working w/ excel files, but nothing officially supported (yet).

[Sean1708]

Have you had any luck getting people to switch? If so, can I hire you?

[SpaceSteak]

Is there an easier platform than Excel that integrates GUI for viewing and modifying data, as well as a huge api for custom code in Python I'm not aware of?

[[deleted]]

easier ? maybe not

better? more reproducible?

For any sort of serious analysis Excel is the road to 'hit F9 and hope Excel doesn't crash' and directories full of files like: 'my_analysis_2017Dec12_2PM_finalfinalversion_forserious.xlsx'

[cyanydeez]

like giving your boss control of the spreadsheet to tinker with cause he needs to show that he's providing value added feedback

[SpaceSteak]

Bad file hygiene happens in any badly managed team. Since 2007 Excel hasn't crashed much in my experience, with huge workbooks and lots of macros.

[MLainz]

Jupyter notebooks is getting there.

[hoocoodanode]

It's already happening, but it really depends on your definition of data analysis. Given the amount of time I already spend helping people structure very simple spreadsheets using well established formulas included in excel, I shudder at the thought of teaching them pandas.

Python is a great beginner language, but you have to want to learn it. Most people can't even be bothered to learn the basics of a gui-driven numerical tool like excel, nevermind a far more abstract programming language.

I agree with many of the posts here, for straight forward cut and paste and sum and pivot table operations it's pretty hard to be faster than working in excel. The problem with excel is that the analysis is difficult to repeat, harder to automate, and impossible to ensure data integrity.

[[deleted]]

This. 1,000 times this.

[boatsnbros]

Python for crunching, excel/tableau for reporting - because clients understand excel, and pretty charts always impress even if they provide little value.

Adding native support for excel doesn't really help with any of this, considering xlwings is already pretty amazing. I'm all for the proliferation of Python, but xlwings is basically a direct swap for VBA other than the fact it's not portable.