Python

I truly wonder why. I mean, others just package a python installation, but Microsoft wants to use the cloud. Very peculiar.

I had mostly the same reaction. The back of the box reads okay, but the potential is worrying. Even as a "cybersecurity news rubbernecker" (Seriously Risky Biz podcasts)

Will this actually automate your workflow?

It seems that this Python integration expects that the source data already exists within the Excel file and Python can essentially just be used to create either visuals or new tables within the same Excel file.

If that's accurate, then this is intended exclusively for data analysis and not process automation. I don't think this will allow people to enhance their existing Python based ETL jobs or create new ones because of this new integration. This does not seem to be a replacement/substitute for VBA or OfficeScripts. It also does not seem to be an alternative to Power Query. If anything, this seems to be most similar to Power Pivot.

Yeah this is typical Microsoft looking at ways to force people up the price ladder. They did it with Power Platform in very obvious ways. They have completely gutted things like Power Apps and Power Automate by making almost all functions non-delegable... unless you are a paying a premium on top of a premium for costly dataverses in which case more than like 7 functions are magically delegable again. But then there are the pay-per-user/pay-per-use connections to access your own data, even if you host it yourself as an enterprise.

They should've been broken up in the late 90s.

💰💰💰 By sending every calculation to Microsoft servers they can log what your company is doing and sell that data to ad-agencies. Also it forces you into a subscription.

I'm guessing the features for reading csv will be important. So I would look at Automate the Boring Stuff with Python.

There are some very good libraries for using Python with Excel. The creator of xlwings wrote a book: Python for Excel.

My favorite library is pandas, which can integrate with other libraries to edit Excel.

This feels like a really dated take to me. Leaving aside whether this was true in the past, in 2023, Excel is happy to open absolutely gargantuan files, and it's quite speedy once it's done so. You can even directly tie it to a database via ODBC if you want, and that works (albeit it obviously flattens the data out in the process, so goodbye foreign keys in any real sense). It also has tons of very easy-to-use data manipulation tools (pivot tables, tables in general, data extrapolation, graphs, etc.) that end up being wonderful complements to something like Python.

Could you write a Python program that would run faster than pure Excel and do the same thing? I mean, probably (although Excel's core execution engine is honestly pretty freaking fast). But could you write it as quickly? Maybe, maybe not. And certainly someone who knows Excel well would have an easier time adding a little Python to patch up any issues than rewriting the whole thing from scratch.

tl;dr I think you're not being accurate about contemporary Excel, and I separately suspect you're not really the target audience here

Sounds like this won’t be the right tool for your use case

I agree! I'm not sure why you're being downvoted either.

This new integration just allows you to do data analysis and data visualization of existing data within an Excel file via Python. The output of your Python scripts is limited to the Excel file. The Python environment itself is also limited as it runs on Microsoft's platform and is controlled by Microsoft.

The (Excel) problem that people already using Python for data analysis/visualization is that they have to use Excel files. Reading/writing Excel files via Python can sometimes be tedious or limiting. Utilizing Python inside of Excel via this integration may help in some scenarios, but they won't be able to use custom libraries built internally, control the Python environment (eg - must use specific version of Python or Python library, can't utilize all Python libraries available on pip, etc.), connect to all necessary external data sources via Python, and utilize proper VCS tools like git.

The problem that people automating tasks via Python have is that there is no Python library nearly as capable of reading or manipulating Excel files as VBA is. This new Python integration does not change that.

The problem that Excel users have is that they want more advanced (or simple/easier) data analysis and data visualization capabilities. However, with Excel's dynamic array formulas, LAMBDA formula, Power Query, and Power Pivot, Excel is becoming much more capable than it ever was. If those tools cannot meet your needs, you likely need to move to something like R, Python, or some other tool. Embedding Python into Excel like this integration does still limits Python with all of Excel's current restraints (size, performance, etc.).

Because this may allow companies that are already using excel and not planning on changing to actually have a powerful programming language.

Yes.

I'd like to see it. VBA is actually brilliant, you can make very very portable applications with intuitive user input and output interfaces (i.e. a cell range in Excel, and and version of tables and graphs you like as outputs)... But realistically who wants to use BASIC these days?
I usually say it in jest, but I'm not sure there is actually a better RAD (rapid application development) platform out there than Excel (with a bit of VBA as needed).

That would be nice, but I think this is more "Power Pivot via Python".

This integration won't allow you to do that. Python will not run locally, but instead on Microsoft's platform (likely Azure).

If you're just reading some simple data from Excel, there are several ways of accomplishing this already. For example, Pandas has read_excel() and there is also openpyxl. You could even use those tools to write the results back to Excel. Things get more complicated though if the Excel file is something more than just a simple list.