Releasing Snakes into the Wild

This week brings big news in both the Excel and Python communities! Python in Excel is now generally available as of Monday of this week! This newsletter focuses on resources and content to help you learn more about one of the most anticipated product releases of the year.

This integration is a game-changer for both Python and Excel. It allows us to integrate some of the best features in both Python code and Excel's built-in functionalities. I love how it lets us write Python code directly within Excel to build algorithms and create visuals that aren't otherwise directly possible.

Excel is another sandbox environment that lets us experiment and try out Python code within familiar and accessible tools. My favorite features of this integration include:

• Connecting directly to data through Power Query, including data sources like APIs, databases (relational and multidimensional models), folders, and different types of flat files.
• Creating stunning visuals using Python's seaborn library.
• Utilizing date and time functions from Python libraries to account for global time zones.

In my previous newsletter edition, I also mentioned Python in Excel because it's my latest course to debut in the LinkedIn Learning library. However, last week the Python in Excel functionality was in preview mode. To use it, I (or anyone else who wanted to try it out) had to sign up for an Insider account, where we then had to enable the Beta channel within the account to try it out.

This week, Python in Excel is now generally available through Microsoft 365 accounts. It's not, however, available across all versions of Excel. Here are the versions it doesn't support:

• Older versions of Excel
• Excel for Mac (can run Parallels or use a virtual environment to get around this limitation)
• Running online Excel on the web
• Excel versions for iPad/iPhone and Android

LinkedIn Live Session

This coming Thursday, September 19th at 4 pm Central Time/2 pm Pacific Time, I'll be doing a LinkedIn Live session with fellow LinkedIn Learning instructor Joe Marini ! It's a 30-minute session in tandem with the general release of Python in Excel this week. If you're not able to attend the live session, you can also access the full recording through the event link below afterward the event.

We'll talk about our thoughts on this now generally available feature within Excel. Other topics for this session will also include:

• Comparing the Python in Excel standard and premium compute options
• Live demos and examples of various approaches for date/time calculations with time zones (like converting UTC to local and vice versa)

Learning Path

For those looking to upskill their Python in Excel knowledge now that it's generally available, check out one of the latest learning paths on LinkedIn for Learning !

All of these courses are free for 30 days to celebrate the official debut of Python in Excel!

All of these courses are free for 30 days after the general release of Python in Excel. The learning path came out two days ago on Monday, so they're free for another 28 days!

Python in Excel: Data Outputs in Custom Data Visualizations and Algorithms

Here's the link to my latest course in the LinkedIn Learning library. Like the other courses in the learning path I mentioned above, it's also free for the next month!

Python in Excel: Getting Started with Data Analysis

Here's the link to Joe's course. It's also available for free for the next month in the LinkedIn Learning library!

Coming Up Next

I was going to make this edition of my newsletter about maps and GIS systems (one of my favorite topics that I'm always trying to learn something more about). But with the news that Python in Excel is now generally available as of this week, I decided to focus on one of the biggest topics at hand this week instead. My insights on maps will be part of next week's newsletter edition instead!

-HW