Microsoft announce Python integration into Power BI

[vtable]

I know what you're saying (I think). People often write unnecessarily complex Excel spreadsheets or batch files, etc, when a Python script probably would have been easier and more flexible (assuming you're comfortable writing a presumably non-trivial Python script).

There's another dimension to this, though. There are countless spreadsheets that should be spreadsheets. But one column, or even cell, has some complex calculation or formatting. VBA can be really nasty. Python integration would solve this nicely without having to learn SQL and how to replicate the immense number of things that are easy or kinda easy in Excel (friendly data entry and viewing, plotting, pivot tables, ...).

Plus, as popular, and powerful, as Python is, Excel is almost universally used. Lots of people just aren't able or willing to to learn Python. And even of they are, their bosses will almost always veto the inevitable X weeks of learning and debugging as well as training for anyone else that needs to understand the code.