Why Python, why Excel, why now?

The short version

Excel is brilliant for a lot of things — but it has limits. Python doesn't have most of those limits. And now you can use Python inside Excel, instead of as a separate tool. That's why this is suddenly a no-brainer for spreadsheet pros.

Five concrete reasons

1. Files that crash Excel are no problem for Python

The classic limit you've probably bumped into: Excel maxes out at about 1,048,576 rows. You get a 4-million-row CSV from the data team, you open it in Excel, and… it shows you the first million. Python handles 4 million rows without breaking a sweat. 40 million? Fine.

2. The same task, done in one click instead of fifty

If you do the same Excel work every Monday — open a file, clean three columns, run a pivot, format a report, save it as a PDF, email it — Python turns that into one script you run once. The first time costs you an hour. Every week after costs you the time it takes to double-click an icon.

3. Things Excel can't do at all

Excel cannot scrape a web page for you. It can't pull data from most APIs cleanly. It can't read most PDFs intelligently. It can't send a hundred personalised emails. Python does all four with a handful of lines.

4. Reusability — the script outlives the spreadsheet

A complex Excel workbook is fragile. Someone changes a column heading and three pivot tables break. A Python script for the same job is text — you can read it, version it, share it, fix it, and re-use it on next month's data without copy-pasting anything.

5. It's now inside Excel

In 2023 Microsoft added a built-in Python runtime to Excel (Microsoft 365). You write =PY() in a cell, type a few lines of Python, hit Enter, and the result lands in the spreadsheet like any other formula result. No installs, no separate tool, no copy-paste between apps. We dive into this in Module 8.

Where Excel is still the right answer

This is not a course that argues you should stop using Excel. Excel is unbeatable for:

• Interactive, click-and-explore data work.
• Sharing a single number-crunching artefact with non-technical colleagues.
• Quick what-if analysis where you tweak a value and watch totals update.
• Anything visual and small — a budget, a model, a tracker.

The right mental model: Excel is your workshop; Python is your power tools. Use both.

The big "what changed"

Three things changed in the past few years that make this course worth taking right now:

1. 2023: Python landed inside Excel via =PY().
2. The data world standardised on pandas. If you can use pandas, you can talk shop with any analyst in any company.
3. AI assistants now write 80% of the boring bits for you. You no longer need to memorise syntax. You need to know what's possible and how to read code — both of which this course teaches.