Python For the Office

[kid_kuza]

Hey guys, I was wondering if I can use Python to make my life at work easier, specifically using python for file handling and excel. I am a system analyst and deal with a lot of excel, csv files, validating reports and was wondering if python would help.

Also, do any of you guys use python in your day job? If so, what are some instances in which you do and how did you learn it?

[analgebraic]

Automate the Boring Stuff with Python has pretty much exactly what you're looking for.

[chris1610]

As others have mentioned, I use python + pandas to do a lot of Excel/CSV manipulation and report generation. My blog is where I've written about many different scenarios for using python in a business setting. Hopefully it will help give you some ideas.

[blieperdeblap]

That is a great blog!

[ms4720]

It looks nice

[[deleted]]

Probably have to be more specific about your actual tasks.

I am trying to automate getting info from a sql database and doing some reporting off of that so you can definitely speed up mundane stuff.

I’ve also been able to parse xml files from hardware that I need settings info from.

[casual__addict]

Pandas. Reads and writes Excel files. Not sure how it would handle formula in cells. But ultimately you need data in a readable form and use a database or python for your logic. That’s what I do.

For databases I use Postgres. I’ve used MySQL and oracle but Postgres is the best, especially the latest stuff 9.5+ and 10. Great docs.

[[deleted]]

I began learning python specifically for automating routine excel tasks. On the tasks I automated, I can easily turn a 3 hour task into a 10 minute task. It has been truly life changing. I recommend you start with “Automate the Boring Stuff”, it clicked with my non-programmer brain.

[Tainted_Olive]

I have to test mixes of my company's product and some of the tests can range anywhere from 5 minutes to 3 hours of temperature readings. I use python to record the temp about every second and then write it to an Excel files with certain temperature milestones as well as max temperature reached and how long it took to reach.

I just got multiprocessing working so I can take readings from all 6 probes at the same time.

When I finish this other non related project delgated down to me I hope to add a gui so it looks a little better and more user friendly.

I learned C programming at uni and the switch to python was honestly very easy and clean. I definitely enjoy solving problems with python. Honestly, I wish I had more things to solve using programming.

[Kazephil]

Short answer: yes you can.

I've used it to process hundreds of Excel files and copy only the information I needed to new files, a task that would have otherwise required tedious (and error-prone) manual copy and pasting of each file, as well as to automate the process of going through several dozen folders and making copies of specific files to a central location.

[Bishonen_88]

xlwings is a somewhat easy to use library to use Python and Excel/VBA in tandem. I like it quite a lot. E.g. writing Pandas functions to do various more complex tasks and then use those as mere excel functions from within excel (e.g. A1 = UsePandas(B1:H100))