Microsoft is bringing Python to Excel

Microsoft is bringing the popular programming language Python to Excel. A public preview of the feature, which allows Excel users to manipulate and analyze data from Python, is available today.

"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," explains Stephen Kinestrand, general manager of modern work at Microsoft. can do." "Now you can perform advanced data analysis in the familiar Excel environment by accessing Python directly from the Excel ribbon."

You won't need to install any additional software or set up add-ons to access the functionality, as the Python integration into Excel will be part of Excel's built-in connectors and Power Queries. Microsoft is also adding a new py function that allows Python data to be exposed within the grid of an Excel spreadsheet. Through a partnership with Anaconda, an enterprise Python repository, popular Python libraries such as pandas, statmodel and matplotlib will be available in Excel.

Python calculations run in the Microsoft cloud, with results fed back into an Excel worksheet. Excel users will be able to create formulas, pivottables, and charts based on Python data, with the ability to bring in charting libraries like matplotlib and seaborn for visualizations like heatmaps, violin plots, and swarm plots.

"I'm excited that this excellent, tight integration of Python and Excel is now seeing the light of day," says Guido van Rossum, the creator of Python and now a distinguished engineer at Microsoft. “I expect both communities to find interesting new uses in this collaboration, enhancing each partner's capabilities. When I joined Microsoft three years ago, I never dreamed this would be possible."

Python in Excel is starting today in the beta channel as a public preview for Microsoft 365 Insiders. It will be limited to Windows at first before being made available on other platforms "at a later date". Microsoft says that Python in Excel will be included in Microsoft 365 subscriptions while in preview, but "some functionality will be restricted without a paid license" after the preview ends.