Software company, Microsoft announced on Thursday announced the preview of Python in Excel.
According to Microsoft, this would enable spreadsheet users to integrate scripts written in the well-liked Python language with their regular Excel calculations in the same workbook.
This feature will first be available to Microsoft 365 Insiders as part of the Excel for Windows beta channel. However, Microsoft points out that the Python computations will be carried out in the Microsoft Cloud even if the feature would initially only be accessible on Excel’s desktop.
“Now you can do advanced data analysis in the familiar Excel environment by accessing Python directly from the Excel ribbon,” GM for Modern Work at Microsoft, Stefan Kinnestrand said.
He added that “No set up or installation is required. Using Excel’s built-in connectors and Power Query, you can easily bring external data into Python in Excel workflows.”
For the development of this feature, Microsoft teamed together with the data science platform Anaconda. The company is bringing the most well-known Python libraries, such as Matplotlib and seaborn for data visualisation, to Excel using the Anaconda Python distribution running in Azure.
