Microsoft has announced that it is integrating Python, a well-known programming language, into Excel. Users of Excel now have the ability to manage and analyze data using Python, thanks to a feature that is now in public preview.
Stefan Kinnestrand, general manager of contemporary work at Microsoft, explains that users can manipulate and explore data in Excel using Python plots and libraries, and then use Excel’s formulas, charts, and pivot tables to further refine their insights. Now that Python is readily accessible from the Excel ribbon, complex data analysis may be done in the comfortable Excel environment.
Python integration in Excel will be a part of Excel’s built-in connectors and Power Query, so one won’t need to install any additional software or set up an add-on to use the features. Additionally, Microsoft is introducing a new PY function that makes it possible to display Python data inside the grid of an Excel spreadsheet.
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Popular Python libraries like pandas, statsmodels, Matplotlib, and others are available in Excel through a collaboration with Anaconda, an enterprise Python repository.
Python calculations run in the Microsoft Cloud will show the results returned into an Excel worksheet. With the potential to incorporate charting libraries like Matplotlib and Seaborn for visualizations like heatmaps, violin plots, and swarm plots, Excel users will be able to generate formulas, PivotTables, and charts based entirely on Python data.
Today, a public preview of Python in Excel is being made available to Microsoft 365 Insiders in the Beta Channel. It will initially only be compatible with Windows before being available on other platforms at a later date. During the preview, Python in Excel will be a part of a Microsoft 365 subscription, but some features will be restricted without a paid licence when the preview expires, according to Microsoft.
