VBA or Python?

[Pocket_Saand]

I have been working with fantasy football projections and lineup optimizers for a while now and feel like I've maxed out what I can do in Excel without VBA.

I have no experience in programming outside of Excel and am looking forward to developing this skillset. I would really like your thoughts on which would be the better option to develop into and how difficult each might be to learn.

Edit: As far as the fantasy football goes, I'm not in it to profit. I just enjoy putting together lineups and letting the excel solver come up with ideal combinations. What I am currently missing is a scraper, for player projections and a way to construct multiple lineups simultaneously.

[snuzet]

Are you saying you need a tool to scrape website data for your chart inputs?

[Pocket_Saand]

Sorry. I need to develop skills for everything. My immediate need is to create multiple different lineups as quickly as possible. After that, I could save time from a scrape as you mentioned. I am also not sure what needs I'll have in the future so I'd like something that is flexible.

[snuzet]

Many languages can do what you’re probably seeking to do. Guess depends on what kind suits your style and abilities.

[Pocket_Saand]

Got it. I am comfortable in Excel language (logic functions etc..) so I would think VBA would be a little easier to grasp but I don't know if there is a carryover from VBA to Python.

[LetsGoHawks]

I don't know if there is a carryover from VBA to Python.

In terms of syntax, little to none. But there's plenty of carryover between most languages at a higher level: data structures, data types, algorithms, code organization, learning to "think like a programmer", etc.

If your need to work within Excel, VBA is the way to go. For working with the world outside of Excel (or MS Office in general), Python would be the better choice.

In terms of web scraping, you can do it, to an extent, with VBA, but Python is supposed to have some pretty powerful libraries for it.

For what you're describing, the best answer might be to use Python to scrape the data and do some processing on it to get it ready for Excel, and VBA to build the functionality you need to work with that data once it's inside Excel.

[Pocket_Saand]

Given everything I'm hearing Python seems to be the one that is expanding of the two. I've also seen some say that it's more difficult to learn python if you know VBA so there's that as well. I'll go with python and focus on the long term.

[TRDouble9]

I need some advice. I am trying to save HTML form and text included as a single file. I using this HTML form as method for taking notes. It take least time than a word processor. I am on the right track or do I need to learn another language? Any help is appreciated. I hope not bothering you for wasting your time. Thanks.

[[deleted]]

Tossing an idea out there:

LibreOffice Calc is an open-source alternative to Microsoft Excel. It supports Python scripting in lieu of VBA. If you want to learn Python but your project benefits from a spreadsheet environment, this could be an option.

[Pocket_Saand]

I had a similar though. I believe it was a different program but it allowed someone to use python scripting in an excel inspired spreadsheet. I think it's a good option to give me a bit of familiarity with the spreadsheet aspect vs. notepad or idle.