Show HN: Script Excel with Python • Hacker News Board

Re: Show HN: Script Excel with Python

#21

Post by karamazov » Fri, Jun 08, 2012, 6:19 PM UTC

bmccormack wrote: post #16

I still have a soft spot for VBA, especially in Excel. I wrote a supply-chain management application in Excel+VBA that's still in production today. As comfortable as I am with VBA, I wouldn't mind in the least ditching it for Python, which makes writing routine methods trivial. Great work!

Glad you like it!

We're also backwards compatible - you can keep running old VBA code, and write new scripts in Python.

Re: Show HN: Script Excel with Python

#22

Post by karamazov » Fri, Jun 08, 2012, 6:25 PM UTC

dkhenry wrote: post #17

The big question I have is why would I use this instead of a real database. If i am not mistaken excel can hook up to ODBC sources and then I can just script things as I normally would using the database drivers.

If you want to script something quickly, Python is better; you also have access to all of Python's libraries (numpy/pylab, for example).

It depends on what you're doing, though.

Re: Show HN: Script Excel with Python

#23

Post by shazam » Fri, Jun 08, 2012, 6:32 PM UTC

That's funny, I just used xlrd and xlrt and had to convert about 100 files to 97-2003 workbooks

Re: Show HN: Script Excel with Python

#24

Post by karamazov » Fri, Jun 08, 2012, 6:32 PM UTC

il wrote: post #18

Any plans for OS X support?

Not currently.

Re: Show HN: Script Excel with Python

#25

Post by mcarvin » Fri, Jun 08, 2012, 6:49 PM UTC

Great work. I am a long time finance geek - this will make life decidedly easier.

Re: Show HN: Script Excel with Python

#26

Post by vj44 » Fri, Jun 08, 2012, 7:10 PM UTC

paduc wrote: post #11

jaxn wrote: post #6

REALLY wish this was available for Mac.

Yep, me too! Would it be possible to use this as a standalone (command line for instance) and not a plugin?

Sorry, it's not possible now. Microsoft's technology is not there yet at MacOS.

Re: Show HN: Script Excel with Python

#27

Post by willyt » Fri, Jun 08, 2012, 7:22 PM UTC

Honest question; I havent tried to script xl or word for years. What is this doing that I couldn't do with IronPython or IronRuby?

Re: Show HN: Script Excel with Python

#28

Post by steve8918 » Fri, Jun 08, 2012, 7:33 PM UTC

What is the licensing for this? I couldn't tell whether this was free, if I had to pay, if it was open source, GPL, etc.

Re: Show HN: Script Excel with Python

#29

Post by karamazov » Fri, Jun 08, 2012, 7:42 PM UTC

steve8918 wrote: post #28

What is the licensing for this? I couldn't tell whether this was free, if I had to pay, if it was open source, GPL, etc.

It's a free beta. We'll be charging for it down the line, but you can use this however you like for now. (It's not open source, though.)

Re: Show HN: Script Excel with Python

#30

Post by jlarocco » Fri, Jun 08, 2012, 7:44 PM UTC

karamazov wrote: post #29

steve8918 wrote: post #28

What is the licensing for this? I couldn't tell whether this was free, if I had to pay, if it was open source, GPL, etc.

It's a free beta. We'll be charging for it down the line, but you can use this however you like for now. (It's not open source, though.)

Why would I use this when I can already connect to Excel using COM for free?