Grist is a spreadsheet with Python support (I am a founder). Python does make some formulas far easier. Nice to see Excel has data science libraries included from the start, that's something we've had our eyes on for a while. On the other hand, Grist is open source and can be run locally.
Microsoft is bringing Python to Excel
211–220 of 455 posts
Re: Microsoft is bringing Python to Excel
#212I imagine this is a stage in a larger plan to incorporate an AI assistant to excel? Being able to talk to your spreadsheet in natural language and have it do a bunch of analysis and visualizations would be a huge productivity booster.
Re: Microsoft is bringing Python to Excel
#213Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s one of the most infuriating and dangerous behaviors I have ever encountered. Excel silently truncates data . The anger is warranted. The problem isn’t assuming a display format for data, it is that a poor assumption actually mangles data. Excel doesn’t fail safe. Numbers in Excel only maintain 15 digits of precision. Leading zeros are also truncated . If you haven’t experienced this you are lucky (or just didn’t…
> It’s one of the most infuriating and dangerous behaviors I have ever encountered. Excel silently truncates data. That's a problem, sure, but not the one sixothree is complaining about. > The problem isn’t assuming a display format for data Your problem might not be, but that’s exactly the problem sixothree is complaining about that the post you are responding to addresses, so while your post references a valid comp…
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Re: Microsoft is bringing Python to Excel
#214Earlier quoted context omitted.
> This alone could eliminate the need for websites that just want this sort of data I catch flak for this all the time! Our users just want to be able to use Excel to free-form analyze their data. IT, of which I'm a part of, insists on building web apps to do that for them. They're never happy because all they wanted was Excel. I keep explaining all we have to do is build a data mart built using SQL Server, and use o…
To be fair, Tableau Desktop, Tableau Prep, and Tableau Cloud are great if expensive products. With Tableau Prep, you get a visual ETL tool. Being technical, I prefer SQL, but for business folks Tableau Prep is more of a REPL so they see what their actions are going to do. They can schedule these Prep flows in Tableau Cloud which will ETL and produce daily datasets which users can then interact via the dashboards on T…
DataIku
Re: Microsoft is bringing Python to Excel
#215I wish it wasn't solely powered only by Microsoft Cloud and could support python running locally, but regardless I think this will still be huge and single-handedly modernizes Excel by a large margin. This alone could eliminate the need for websites that just want this sort of data. I can think of a past project at a previous job I did building an analytics website used only by a handful of people internally that cou…
> This alone could eliminate the need for websites that just want this sort of data I catch flak for this all the time! Our users just want to be able to use Excel to free-form analyze their data. IT, of which I'm a part of, insists on building web apps to do that for them. They're never happy because all they wanted was Excel. I keep explaining all we have to do is build a data mart built using SQL Server, and use o…
> I keep explaining all we have to do is build a data mart built using SQL Server, and use our ETL tools to keep it populated with the data they need to analyze.
I mean, that's like >90% of building a CRUD web app. If you truly only need the R in CRUD, your approach sounds reasonable. Otherwise, just go the extra distance and build a CRUD app with csv export / direct SQL access.
Re: Microsoft is bringing Python to Excel
#216I was so excited about Python in Excel, until it said "run in the cloud." There just doesn't seem to be any reason for this except to tie you into their cloud service. It feels so much like protecting me from unsafe printer ink. I'm generally a fan of MS Office products and try to give them the benefit of the doubt. Please help me think of a plausibly good reason for requiring Python to run in the cloud, that is not…
Not asking customers to manage a local python installation is one thing, although I totally understand how excel + python power users would likely be comfortable bringing and maintaining their own python runtime.
Does Excel run in a browser today?
There are a lot, I mean a lot apps that support scripting languages and don't need you to manage the language's runtime yourself. Blender's UI is entirely in Python. Civilization games have most game logic in Lua.
Re: Microsoft is bringing Python to Excel
#217I have to see some red flags here. The very nature and power of Excel comes from the fact that workbooks can stand alone. This means that the process is eternally tied to the cloud now. So when you, 3 years down the line, have to open a workbook from your deceased colleague, you are at the whim of the vendor supporting the existence of this integration. Step one of any workload will always be "work out how to make th…
> This means that the process is eternally tied to the cloud now.
"You will own nothing, and you will be happy" has followed us to... spreadsheets? We can't even own the things we're wageslaving away at our desk for.
Re: Microsoft is bringing Python to Excel
#218Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hi I work on Excel, can you write a summary of why that's important to you and send it to bgruenbaum@microsoft.com ? I'll get it in front of a PM. Alternatively PMs read all the feedback sent via the feedback UI on Excel web and desktop so you can use that instead if you prefer.
Can you just please fix the issue with date strings (such as "20230822090811") being converted into scientific notation? I've received literally hundreds of these documents over the past decade. And as long as this problem exists, I will keep receiving them. Can you please just add a button - "unmess this document"? The number of man-hours I've wasted re-creating documents is countless. My job is to do other things n…
All the crusty broken shit in Excel have become features over the last thirty years.
Re: Microsoft is bringing Python to Excel
#219Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you _really_ think I've spent the past 10 years getting files like this and I still don't understand the reason. I didn't ask for an explanation. I asked for a fix. What are you doing here?? I can provide instructions on how to do this until the cows come home. I will still get files with these issues. Is that not obvious? Do you really think I want to examine _tens of thousands of rows_ in documents that are 100…
> Do you _really_ think I've spent the past 10 years getting files like this and I still don't understand the reason. I didn't ask for an explanation. I asked for a fix. I don’t believe you’ve been doing it that long and haven't found the fix. Apply appropriate formatting if you have long strings of numeric digits [as long as they can’t have leading zeroes] that you want stored as numbers but displayed without scient…
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Re: Microsoft is bringing Python to Excel
#220I have to see some red flags here. The very nature and power of Excel comes from the fact that workbooks can stand alone. This means that the process is eternally tied to the cloud now. So when you, 3 years down the line, have to open a workbook from your deceased colleague, you are at the whim of the vendor supporting the existence of this integration. Step one of any workload will always be "work out how to make th…
> This means that the process is eternally tied to the cloud now. "You will own nothing, and you will be happy" has followed us to... spreadsheets? We can't even own the things we're wageslaving away at our desk for.
> We can't even own the things we're wageslaving away at our desk for.
But we never owned those things we're wageslaving away at our desk for, that's why its called wageslaving. Whether our employers own them or rent them seems pretty immaterial.