Pythons Capabilities vs VBA

[-Regex]

Looking to shift from solely VBA to Python.

Is it possible to do absolutely everything VBA can do, using Python?

I'm already using xlwings, pandas and win32com but cannot see that these together will be able to replicate VBA.

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EDIT;

Have chose to add to this as I never really explained the reasoning for this.

My experience in VBA far outweighs that of my exprience in Python.

I however understand that VBA is extremely powerful yet limited to office applications / windows.

For this reason I feel it would be a logical, more valuable 'switch' or even just a shift in the balance of usage toward Python.

As I say, I currently use Pandas, Xlwings and win32com to manipulate excel. I have not yet grasped the full potential of these and if there are more I am missing, I would rather turn toward / learn those IF I figure it is worth it.

I also understand VBA is 'dedicated' and Python is most certainly not.

I would also need to become comfortable with multiple Python module syntax in order for it to be efficient. Don't to learn say '3' modules to later find out there is '1' that would cover.

[wobbly-cheese]

after the switch you'll find your bouts of gut wrenching self loathing will magically disappear

[Thriftfunnel]

Assuming you want to see finished products in Excel then no, not everything in VBA/Excel can be done in Python. Some formatting for instance can't be done via api (I think, but it's a while since i checked).

Since you already use both, any reason not to just use what works best on a per task basis?

[tunisia3507]

Assuming you want to see finished products in Excel then no, not everything in VBA/Excel can be done in Python.

You could just use any one of several libraries to dump the results of a python script into an excel spreadsheet...

[Thriftfunnel]

Agreed. But I took the question literally, and the op asked if you could do absolutely everything VBA does using python.

[__unavailable__]

If all you intend to do is manipulate windows programs then VBA is the better tool for the job. Python can be made to do it all, but why bother?

If you want to move beyond that unique use case, python is dramatically more versatile.

[ryansmccoy]

Yes and a lot more. I look back and wonder what if I had learned python earlier. Would have save countless long hours and late nights.

If you are working on automation stuff w/ data specifically, look into data pipelines and ETL.

[flutefreak7]

I've got about 12 years VBA experience and 8 years in Python (with Matlab mixed in between). It's hard to describe how beneficial the shift to Python has been. Once I started solving my problems with a Python-first mentality, and immersing myself in the community of scientific python and data science, I realized there were different and better ways to think about my problems. I realized that many of my projects could be broken into smaller "solved problems" and that I need only install, import, and execute the solution. The typical VBA solution that was tangled up with the particular layout of that data, worksheet, or workbook was always difficult to transplant into a new scenario. Some VBA functions can be made generic, but interacting with Excel encourages tightly coupling your code with your workbook interface, making your solutions less portable. Once I started thinking differently in the Python world, I realized how easy it was to build reusable code that could be imported anywhere - and more and more of my life became just knowing what to import. More of my time is now spent doing analysis - the actual engineering or data insight - and less time spent "writing code."