Ever wanted to do more with Microsoft Excel? Microsoft just announced a public preview of Python in Excel, which would let users add Python code directly to a spreadsheet.
This would allow data analysts, engineers, marketers, and students learning data science to work with Python code to perform complex statistical analysis, advanced visualizations, predictive analytics, and machine learning in Excel.
Users will be able to enter Python code directly into cells using the new =PY function, as Python will be integrated directly into the Excel grid, without the need to install any additional software.
Microsoft explains that this new feature is based on the Anaconda distribution of Python, a company geared towards data scientists and engineers that is also beginner-friendly. Anaconda includes many pre-packaged libraries and packages such as pandas, Matplotlib, scikit-learn, NumPy and SciPy.
Extracting dates using regular expressions. Microsoft
Microsoft says that Python in Excel runs on Microsoft’s cloud, via Microsoft 365. This means the code is not running locally (on the machine), but in an isolated container using Azure Container Instances and separated from others process to reduce the risk of unauthorized access.
User spreadsheet data is controlled by specific xl() and =PY() functions to ensure data security and execution of only authorized operations.
The Microsoft Excel Python integration preview will be available to Microsoft 365 Insiders using the beta channel in Excel for Windows.
Source: “ZDNet.com”