Python in Excel – Available Now (techcommunity.microsoft.com)

submitted 1 month ago by neme@lemm.ee to c/python@programming.dev

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[-] GetOffMyLan@programming.dev 4 points 1 month ago

Likely aimed at financial departments which often (in my experience) love to do everything in Excel.

[-] olympicyes@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

Sometimes when IT only lets you hold a hammer, then by necessity everything looks like a nail.

[-] starshipwinepineapple@programming.dev 1 points 1 month ago

Right. VBA or this may not be the best tools for the job but when IT restricts what can be used then VBA or excel python could be great examples of Shadow IT.

[-] rhymepurple@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 month ago

That's true, but how often have you heard a finance team member wanting a CSV file so they can more easily process the data using Pandas or visualize it with MatPlotLib? How many accountants or finance people (especially those that ask for everything in Excel) do you know that is comfortable writing even a single line of Python code? How many of the finance team's Excel-based tools will Python integrate well with? What feature(s) does Python within Excel provide that Excel (formulas, pivot tables, VBA, Power Query, Power Pivot, etc.) does not provide that someone on the finance team would need? What advanced charting/dashboarding functionality does Python in Excel provide that isn't better accomplished in PowerBI (if not handled by standard Excel charts/graphs)?

Don't get me wrong - Microsoft's implementation of Python in Excel has its merits and will solve some problems that otherwise would not be possible in Excel and will make some people happy. However, this is not the solution most people were expecting, asking for, or find useful.