Microsoft has announced the general availability of Python in Excel. This makes it possible to execute Python code directly in a spreadsheet and use the programming language’s commonly used libraries for data processing.
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Python in Excel is available to Microsoft 365 Business and Enterprise customers. However, the integration initially works only under Windows without any restrictions.
Connection to Anaconda
Microsoft introduced the first public preview in August 2023. Python in Excel makes it possible to enter and execute code directly in the cells of a spreadsheet worksheet. The technical basis for Python integration is the Anaconda distribution of the programming language.
In addition to the programming language, Python in Excel provides connections to several Python libraries such as pandas, scikit-learn, matplotlib, and Natural Language Toolkit NLTK.
Python in Excel can create text analysis charts in a Python sheet using the NLTK library.
(Image: Microsoft)
Requires Azure, but an alternative is on the horizon
However, the distribution is in Azure, so the code always has to take a detour through the Microsoft cloud to be executed there. For complex calculations, the process can be even more efficient than local execution, but for security and data protection reasons, some companies prefer to keep their code local.
Microsoft emphasizes that for security reasons, Python in Excel runs in a separate container on Azure that is only accessible through built-in functions (xl() To send and =PY() to get the data)
However, an alternative without the cloud is already in the starting blocks: in early August this year, Anaconda presented the Toolbox, which includes Anaconda Code, a tool that runs Python code locally. The Anaconda Toolbox relies on the PyScript project, which uses WebAssembly to integrate into the browser. This allows Python code to be executed locally in a browser-based Excel add-in.
Copilot helps you write Python code
In parallel with the general availability of Python in Excel, Microsoft has a public Preview of Copilot in Excel with Python announcedwhich generates appropriate Python code from natural language analysis requests.
The preview of Copilot in Excel with Python evaluates queries and, among other things, generates code to visualize data.
(Image: Microsoft)
Only on Windows for now
Customers who use Excel on operating systems other than Windows — macOS, Android, iPhone, iPad, or web versions — currently have limited use of Python in Excel. According to the Microsoft support page You can view workbooks prepared with Python, but recalculating cells with Python code results in an error message.
The basic version of Python in Excel is part of Microsoft 365 Business licenses like E3 and E5 at no additional cost, but not for consumer licenses. In addition to the basic offer Microsoft offers a version for an additional fee.Which provides premium compute access to the Azure cloud.
More details on the general availability of Python in Excel can be found here From Microsoft’s Excel Blog,
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