Microsoft is reportedly bringing Python to Excel. The two worlds of Python and Excel are now in collision all thanks to the new integration of Microsoft to help boost data analysis and visualizations.
Microsoft Is Bringing Python to Excel
Microsoft is now bringing the popular programming language Python down to Excel. A public preview of the feature is now available today for anyone who cares to know, thus enabling Excel users to easily and effectively manipulate and even analyze data from Python.
“You can manipulate and explore data in Excel using Python plots and libraries, and then use Excel’s formulas, charts, and PivotTables to further refine your insights,” the general manager of modern work at Microsoft, Stefan Kinnestrand explains. “Now you can do advanced data analysis in the familiar Excel environment by accessing Python directly from the Excel ribbon.”
How to Get Access to the Functionality
You will not be needing to install any additional software or even get to set up an add-on in a bid to get access to the functionality in question, as the integration of Python in Excel will be part of the built-in connectors and Power Query of Excel. Microsoft as you should know is also adding a new PY function that enables Python data to be exposed within the grid of an Excel spreadsheet. Through a partnership with Anaconda, which as you should know is an enterprise Python repository, popular Python libraries such as pandas, statsmodels, and even Matplotlib will now be available in Excel.
Python calculations as you already know run in the Microsoft Cloud, with the results then returned into an Excel worksheet. Users of Excel will now be able to create formulas, PivotTables, as well as charts all based on Python data, with the ability to bring in charting libraries such as Matplotlib and even Seaborn for visualizations such as heatmaps, violin plots, and swarm plots.
What Microsoft Has To Say about the New Development
“I’m excited that this excellent, tight integration of Python and Excel is now seeing the light of day,” Python’s creator and now a Microsoft distinguished engineer Guido van Rossum states. “I expect that both communities will find interesting new uses in this collaboration, amplifying each partner’s abilities. When I joined Microsoft three years ago, I would not have dreamed this would be possible.”
Python in Excel Is Rolling Out Today
Python in Excel for those that don’t know is rolling out today but as a public preview for Microsoft 365 Insiders in the Beta Channel. It will however be limited to Windows initially just before being made available to other platforms “at a later date.” Microsoft has stated that Python in Excel will be included in a Microsoft 365 subscription during the said preview, but however “some functionality will be restricted without a paid license” after the preview reportedly ends.
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