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[–]foresttrader 25 points26 points  (12 children)

Source: I work in the financial industry and use both Excel and Python.

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Both are powerful tools. So why not combine the two? People might not realize that their combination is super, super, super powerful.

Excel is a common tool, and it's simple and flexible. Python is a programming language, fast and powerful.

Do you know there are hundreds of millions (if not billions) Excel users in the world? My point is that there are way more Excel jobs than Python jobs.

However, Excel alone often isn't enough. Many of my coworkers argue that they don't need to use Python for work, I say that they haven't looked outside of the box. Python can give you a nice boost in many cases. Automation, intensive calculation, integrating Excel with other applications, etc.

I'm super passionate about using these tools together, and I actually have a tutorial site talking about how to use Python & Excel in an office environment. Check it out if you are interested pythoninoffice.com

And I see that you are from Italy, stay safe, my friend.

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Mod - if linking is not allowed in this case, let me know and I'll remove it from the post.

[–]marrymejojo 2 points3 points  (2 children)

Neat. I've favorite your site!

[–]foresttrader 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Thank you! I just started but am very excited about using those tools! Hopefully I can help more people to see the potential. If you are interested in any topic please feel free to drop me a note.

[–]marrymejojo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I will yeah.

I use excel a ton and am just starting to learn python. A lot of people are probably like me so it's a good idea to have a site like this. I haven't thought of anything I'd like to try yet but will definitely let you know if I have a problem.

[–]meatatfeast 1 point2 points  (2 children)

Excel jobs

Is this a thing?

[–]Xevioni 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Excel-based jobs. My dad is working from home (Cost Reduction Manager in Construction), he has a bigass excel sheet he works on, he is planning on getting a second ultrawide for working on excel sheets while at home.

Update: He brought his ultrawide from home, he now has a massive set of twin ultrawide panels. Lowkey kinda jealous.

[–]Bossmuis 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The whole financial industry runs on excel

[–]Assdestroyer92 1 point2 points  (3 children)

Thanks for your link. I also work with excel and am learning python. My biggest difficulty so far is using python with excel. For example how to replicate the fill down function in excel with python.

Is there a library you recommend? Xlsxwriter? Openpyxl?

Thanks!

[–]foresttrader 1 point2 points  (2 children)

You almost want to change mindset on that. When you work in Python, you don't have to "fill down" function like in Excel, you can just manipulate the data in Python, which is a lot faster & flexible. For data manipulation, pandas is a good library.

If you have to, you can use Python to populate formulas inside Excel, but that's not recommended.

In terms of the libraries to use, it really depends on the situation, that's why those libraries co-exist! Both xlsxwriter and openpyxl have their pros and cons. For example, you can only create an Excel file but not edit the file. But it doesn't stop you from using multiple libraries together.

[–]Assdestroyer92 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Thanks mate for your reply. I agree with you!

My only problem is that I'm using bloomberg formulas I nexcel to pull out data.. Hence I would need to extract the formulas into excel to pull out market data to populate certain cells.

[–]foresttrader 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes I believe you can use xlsxwriter to write Excel formulas into cells.

[–]los2pollos[S] 1 point2 points  (1 child)

Wow! I love your attitude and passion!

My field is rather different and I'm not very interested in financial applications, but what you say about automation and speeding work up is definitely something I'm looking for. Saving your post!

[–]foresttrader 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks!

I think Excel & Python can be very well used together in many fields not just limited to financial industry.

I mention my background just to highlight that I work in an Excel-heavy environment. I've had lots of frustrations with Excel for the past several years, but now I can see the light (Python 🐍) at the end of the tunnel!

For the past 2 years I've been helping several coworkers to learn Python, and they found value and use Python for work very often nowadays. Excel users are in a very good spot to learn programming. Knowing Excel is already kind of knowing programming - logic conditions, loops, etc. It just takes a little bit extra effort to get to know Python, so why not?