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Microsoft is bringing Python to Excel

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Re: Microsoft is bringing Python to Excel

#411

Post by sebazzz »

jedberg wrote: post #223
baz00 wrote: post #81

I 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 will be true whether it uses the cloud or not. Excel worksheets can already have external links (both on the Web and to other files). If those web resources or other files aren't available, you're out of luck! And the older ones may only open on software that no longer runs on modern machines. This is why it's important to restore your backups once in a while, or in this case, validate your critical files.

External links in Excel are copied and cached though.

Re: Microsoft is bringing Python to Excel

#412

Post by FabHK »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #394
bluedino wrote: post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But how do they not realize that not everyone wants to have the cloud required for a feature in Excel?

"It is difficult to get a man to implement something when his stock options depend on it remaining unimplemented." -- how a modern-day Sinclair Lewis might answer

Wrong Sinclair: the quote was Upton Sinclair (who, according to Wikipedia, is “not to be confused with his contemporary, Sinclair Lewis”).

Re: Microsoft is bringing Python to Excel

#413

Post by sebazzz »

baz00 wrote: post #81

I 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.

Not only the cloud, also the subscription. If you cancel the subscription (note that the announcement mentioned it might be a paid module), don't have the subscription (because you got the Excel from a supplier), etc. you already have a problem using this Excel sheet.

Re: Microsoft is bringing Python to Excel

#414

Post by pseudalopex »

WorldMaker wrote: post #227
pid-1 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft could ship its own Python distro within Excel. The biggest problem is that historically Guido / the Steering Council have avoided being involved in how py libs are distribuited, so there are many ways to do everything. But if you do have an opinion and means to enforce it, mantaining a Python environment can be a quite smooth experience.

A complication here is how large the Python distro this appears to be using is. I don't know if you've ever set up a container with all of anaconda, scikit, statsmodels, pandas, Matplotlib, seaborn, and more but it gets pretty big. A lot of people would complain about the bloat if Excel installed it by default. Another complication is they claim the container isn't just "a docker container", but for increased securit…

How large is pretty big? And who said it must be installed by default?

Hyper-V is enabled by default on supported hardware.

Re: Microsoft is bringing Python to Excel

#415

Post by bjornasm »

bigger_cheese wrote: post #378
taylodl wrote: post #57

Earlier 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…

How do you lock down Excel - that is the issue we have where I work and the main reason excel is strongly discouraged. There are two main issues my org has battled with: 1.People basically turn excel into their own mini databases which causes a support nightmare. 2. This is strongly related to 1) Data provenance is a nightmare because so many people were passing around excel spreadsheets it became very difficult to t…

Are you using Power BI? If it is easy to find and use ground truth data I find that people will start using that. Encourage sharing reports, but make it "official" by sharing them through Power BI.

Re: Microsoft is bringing Python to Excel

#417

Post by buovjaga »

tzs wrote: post #325
buovjaga wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get the same result in LibreOffice 7.5.5 as your Excel example. Which LibreOffice version did you use?

7.5.5.2 on MacOS.

The only thing I can think of is macOS clipboard manager somehow interfering with the copied data. Was testing on Linux kf5 UI.

Also, I can preserve the empty row, if I paste with Ctrl+Shift+Alt+V (Edit - Paste Special - Paste Unformatted Text). This opens the Text Import dialog.

Re: Microsoft is bringing Python to Excel

#418

Post by personalityson »

cableshaft wrote: post #13

I 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…

Is the idea that you will not be able to use these scripts without a subscription?

Re: Microsoft is bringing Python to Excel

#419

Post by mackrevinack »

Nifty3929 wrote: post #109

I 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…

there's always Grist. its not a clone of excel but its a spreadsheet/hybrid database so it does some similar things, but most importantly let's you use python for formulas and also has a self hosted option if you want to run it locally

Re: Microsoft is bringing Python to Excel

#420

Post by anaisconce »

lanza wrote: post #377
hathym wrote: post #3

》Python calculations run in Microsoft’s Cloud No thanks!

Yup, as somebody who desperately wants great python integration in my suite of spreadsheets I'm not even going to consider trying this.

You can try Grist. Spreadsheet with Python formula support, and open source. https://www.getgrist.com/ https://github.com/gristlabs/grist-core/
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