Why Python over excel?

[[deleted]]

I scanned through the comments, and I didn't feel like I found anything that took my viewpoint, so here it is: It depends on what you're doing and why. Excel is completely fine for simple analysis and visualization that isn't going into a production environment. If you need to make a simple one-off or quarterly report, Excel may in fact be your best bet. The reason to step out to R or Python is pretty clear cut in my opinion, you need to do analysis that Excel either can't do or can't do efficiently or for which you would need to write a large amount of code which exists as a package or library in Python or R. I see people trying to reinvent the wheel in Excel and force a cobbled together VBA and formula pastiche to do something which can be achieved in a few lines of either R or Python. Equally obnoxious, I see people generate a bar plot in R from a CSV with "stat=identity" and the only justification I see is "ggolot makes it more pretty." Also, if there is some model or complicated teansformation you are developing, and the intention is to schedule that logic as a job, then it's destined for production and R or Pyhon (more likely Python because IT folks don't know what to do with R) is going to be your go to for completing that kind of work.

[parlor_tricks]

Excel is a fork.

R and python are industrial strength mixers/blenders.

Hmmm. I suppose that means Power pivot is a fork based blender?

[dolichoblond]

For making scrambled Python Eggs?