Correction. Excel DOES NOT HAVE PYTHON. Your python is sent to Microsoft's cloud instance of Python and the result there is sent back to your Excel sheet. No actual python is being executed on your machine.
this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2023
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So it's sending it up to the big snake in the sky?
Nobody said that Excel has Python
Yeah, on their cloud. LoL
Or you know, use a non-proprietary format like CSV and analyze your data in any language you damn well please.
Excel can't import a CSV file reliably though - and neither can any other spreadsheet software I've ever tested. They have problems with dates, numeric values, etc.
The only reliable way to work with CSV is in a programming language of your choice or a plain text editor.
I've never had any issue and have used CSV for years from hundreds of sources. I prefer the "what you see is what you get" and not Excel's "helpful" guessing at dates.
Excel can't even get it's own shit right when it's in XLSX:
https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/6/21355674/human-genes-rename-microsoft-excel-misreading-dates
An important detail is that Microsoft executes your code in their cloud, which for privacy reasons alone is extremely questionable.
So it wont work if you are ever offline or have internet problems etc.
Terrible Design
There’s no way I’ll ever use this, mostly because good luck trying to open that spreadsheet later.
Intentionally terrible design. Them and Adobe learned from games that you would be likely to use official\subscription service if your workflow depends on cloud services. One put AI voice transcriptions and generative tools, another added furter cloud integration into files themselves. Pirated copies won't have access to these features, so it'd become an increasing handicap to those not paying.
Didn't LibreOffice Calc have this like... a decade ago?
There's also xlwings. The free tier does just that: run python code in Excel, and no cloud is required!
I read somewhere that this required connecting to Microsoft's cloud? Is that true?
It is. So not really that great, imo. Just another rent seeking behavior to force a current subscription.
Don't get me wrong, I'm certain it scratches an itch many people have, just the fact they put it in the cloud is a hell of a lot of needless complexity and antiuser.
LibreOffice already had JS
... and Python that actually gets executed on your machine, not someone else's machine (ie the cloud).
Forgive me if I'm wrong, but isn't that something entirely different? This is python in a cell of a spreadsheet, which could be really good, but what you linked seems to be for macros, same as excel's VBA
Good point, that's another difference between the two. Although you can probably achieve the same result with both.
Not depending on the cloud processing your data is more important in my opinion.
Python in a spreadsheet would be so helpful, abstracting it out to macros less so. Better than making them in VBA I'm sure, but still not the same thing.
I'm very basic, more thinking about stuff like using Python f-strings and string formatting vs excels formatting.
goddamn now i gotta learn python to stay ahead in my office job? shit...
Do you need to? I feel like learning Python wouldn't give much benefit here, unless you're already using Excel to create applications. In that case, learning Python might let you start making applications that better suit your needs.
Nah I was kind of joking. I do feel like understanding Excel really well has helped me stay ahead of my coworkers, but obviously people who can't figure out Excel won't be figuring out python anytime soon.
Learning python could be handy if you ever wanted a career change into a software developer :)
That would make some things so much easier, imagine using python string formatting instead of excel CONCAT and '&'... but it's running on the cloud, so going to be slow and fundamentally useless.
Good I’m staying away from both