Will Python Kill VBA in 2021?

Will Python Kill VBA in 2021?
Python has become very popular in the last few years. It is often used with Excel instead of VBA. In this video I take a look at Python and see how it compare to VBA. The videos cover the following:
* A Brief history of Python and VBA
* What are Python and VBA used for?
* Writing Code - Python vs VBA
* Filter data with a few lines of Python
* Running Python from Excel
* 3 Simple Pros of using Visual Studio to write Code
* Installing Python applications on other machines
* Pros and Cons of Python
* Will Python Kill VBA?
#PythonExcel #PythonVBA #xlWings
SUBSCRIBE TO THE CHANNEL: bit.ly/36hpTCY
DOWNLOAD THE SOURCE CODE FOR THIS VIDEO: bit.ly/3jZZNwO
Excel VBA Training
The Excel VBA Handbook Course(TheExcelVBAHandbook.com)
Webinar Archives - 60+ Hours of VBA training(excelmacromastery.com/excel-v...)
Free Excel VBA Resources
Excel VBA Articles (excelmacromastery.com/vba-art...)
Useful VBA Shortcut Keys
========================
Debugging:
Compile the code: Alt + D + C OR Alt + D + Enter
Run the code from the current sub: F5
Step into the code line by line: F8
Add a breakpoint to pause the code: F9(or click left margin)
Windows:
View the Immediate Window: Ctrl + G
View the Watch Window: Alt + V + H
View the Properties Window: F4
Switch between Excel and the VBA Editor: Alt + F11
View the Project Explorer Window: Ctrl + R
Writing Code:
Search keyword under cursor: Ctrl + F3
Search the word last searched for: F3
Auto complete word: Ctrl + Space
Get the definition of the item under the cursor: Shift + F2
Go to the last cursor position: Ctrl + Shift + F2
Get the current region on a worksheet: Ctrl + Shift + 8(or Ctrl + *)
To move lines of code to the right(Indent): Tab
To move lines of code to the left(Outdent): Shift + Tab
Delete a Line: Ctrl + Y(note: this clears the clipboard)
Table of Contents:
00:00 - Introduction
00:27 - Brief history of Python and VBA
01:46 - What are Python and VBA used for?
02:34 - Coding Task - Python vs VBA
06:36 - Run Python from Excel
08:02 - 3 Simple Pros of VS Code
09:34 - Installing our Python Application
10:44 - Advantages of Python over VBA
12:01 - Will Python Kill VBA?

[@lucienay7803]

An important advantage of VBA over Python is that user can "record" their actions and Excel will "translate" it to Macros. So user needs not build it from scratch. User needs only a bit VBA knowledge and it's sufficient enough to run it from time to time. May not sound nice to hear, but it is really a nice feature when beginners are making their applications.

[@abexlconsulting9557]

You are more than correct.

[@morgadoapi4431]

Another advantage of VBA and Python is that you should not touch these, at all, ever.

[@abexlconsulting9557]

@@morgadoapi4431 why?

[@luvlycan]

I'm working as VBA developer since last 4 years and honestly I'm feeling that now this language is becoming obsolete. :(

[@morgadoapi4431]

@@luvlycan I would even say it's obsolete since 6 years.

[@logic3686]

I've already created so many functions/sub routines in VBA that keeps me from writing out common code that writing new subs in my workbooks is pretty simple. Plus I work in an environment where the big factor of installing python on end users computers that use my workbooks is just not reasonable for me. So no, the convenience of VBA being already part of an excel workbook I'm sharing that the user doesn't have to install a 3rd party to use is a big factor for me.

[@Excelmacromastery]

Thanks for sharing! That is a factor for many people.

[@rushrush6754]

Your right, python is powerful in data Analytic but can't be compared with vba that was built specifically for Microsoft software. vba is obviously more powerful in excel again python cannot replace it completely

[@htchd0211]

@@rushrush6754 Same here.

[@wisetank135]

@@Excelmacromastery is Microsoft releasing a MS version of python like script code in excel?

[@josipsuflaj8371]

@@wisetank135 It seems to me Microsoft is trying to push all to the cloud. M365.No Vba there, not sure about python. All hype about power apps, power automate and powerFX as underlying logic facilitator. On the other hand it is still very 'raw' and more bot, teams orientated Just my impression. Big companies will be 'nudged' there. Nevermind 'success' of sharepoint that tried that few years ago

[@dimonovych]

1. You can write your own function in VBA and call it with "one line of code only" 2. There are extensions for VBE for additional functionality, such as grouping parts of code. 3. There is also spell check in VBE, it makes spaces after commas automatically) I don't say Python is bad, but those advantages didn't argue me)

[@pabloraindogarcia8107]

Exactlty!! X2

[@JHatLpool]

The big advantage of Excel (+ VBA) is that it is just everywhere. With VBA, you can get started quickly and make a quick assessment of time to be spent/ importance of your proposed application. VBA and Python will live side-by-side for a few years to come.

[@michaels1813]

No need to install additional tools. I can be sitting in a meeting and start to code.

[@PiroMat15]

"Company program restrictions..." That's how my adventure with VBA begins :) And it's great due to easy installation or "no installation needend".

[@mzucs]

Same here

[@joseryanquiatchon7330]

Exactly. Develop and throw away

[@_Dearex_]

This

[@lianvitos]

So true. I work in a worldwide operating company and they allow no extra software here. Even Visual studio is forbidden, I have checked today. If you request an exception, you are personally responsible for the security of the software. I will never sign that.

[@petrmercedes1868]

unfortunately also.

[@jimclay4775]

I use Excel and VBA to review geochemical data sets for groundwater monitoring. Recently I have been doing data processing in Excel followed by a handoff to R for data visualization graphics. My data sets aren't big, but they are too large to simply do a visual inspection of the numbers and draw confident conclusions. This video has inspired me to take a look at Python. Thanks!

[@fischziege]

Corporate desk slave here: our part time student team member likes to work in Python and his results are great. We as an organisation rely on basic office tools, so deploying solutions as Python scripts or apps is cumbersome and we lack people who can support it. Would love to see Python being integrated in Office, would get me off my lazy behind and learn some more...

[@jvdb5509]

This is the single reason VBA is still so widely used. I develop in VBA for this exact reason.

[@johnwayne8059]

Rather I want to see python integrated everywhere, not only in office products, just BTW! You should kill your lazyness and start as soon as possible with python, caused by python is an allrounder. It's amazingly powerful and can be used for AI as well! Beste Grüße 🤟😎

[@biskutnation]

Office script will be available as an alternative.

[@adastraperlana]

@@biskutnation 2 words. Monthly billings. Honesty if i were to start a business I would seek of a way to to it exclusively with open-source. If the company gets big, private software will cost you millions per month.

[@richardgilbert9042]

Python has some of the same advantages as R, but there's a lot more to Excel applications than just a little data read/filter/write. I have written apps in VBA that dynamically modified the UI in Excel, changing menu options based on queries that are based on initial user selections. The user then made additional choices from the dynamically populated lists, and those choices were used to build SQL strings, query an external DB, process the query results, and populate reports and charts in the workbook. Complicated? Well, yes, but I wouldn't have wanted to try it with Python. All the necessary code and structure was encapsulated in the saved Excel workbook without 3rd party appendages to be installed/managed. Power Query wasn't available back then, but I'd probably look at integrating that with VBA in the applications I wrote before messing with Python/Excel hybrids.

[@Deepanshu302]

Can you teach me VBA. With real uses.

[@rahul7rock]

I am using both python and VBA as of now. But will stick to one which you are teaching in near future 🙂

[@Zavyyn]

When automating and optimizing for others, I find the user wants to open as few applications as possible, leading to preference for VBA as macro/module solutions in Excel and complex Access databases (Especially if those databases already exist). Often, if I consider doing something in Python instead of using VBA it is because it is a one-time task that will not require training somebody.

[@Excelmacromastery]

You can download the code(both Python and VBA) from the description below the video. *Quick note* on the VBA Array code in the video that many have commented on. I am aware that I can read the row directly from the range. What I was showing is this: Accessing ranges directly in VBA is extremely slow and gets exponentially slower if you are dealing with large data. That's why I use arrays. You can write from a range to an array in one line of code. It is fast and efficient. Reading through arrays is also very fast and unlike ranges the performance remains consistent as the size grows(see kzbin.info/www/bejne/gKukfaaahtudqJo) The problem is that once your data is in the array there is no sort, filter, slice etc. functionality. You have to write your own code to do this. (That's why I created an Array Class - see kzbin.info/www/bejne/kIrbkmCHYtOGjpI). In Python and Typescript(and most modern languages) it is trivial to do this. I see this as a big problem in VBA if you are dealing with large datasets. A new user writes code and it is running extremely slow. They either conclude VBA is slow and give up or they discover that using arrays will make the code much faster. Once they switch to an array they have now lost the range functionality that allows filtering, slicing rows/columns, sorting etc. They then have to write the code to do this or find it somewhere.

[@Nic_Holas]

there is no sorting and filtering in python either, it's in pandas library. what stops me from writing pandas for VBA and then claiming it's advantage of VBA. not trying to argue against or for either of the languages, just pointing out that often claimed advantage of python is libraries and those are really not part of the language. a real thing to consider in world of office apps (spreadsheets, small db) is ease of use and overall performance, and VBA wins, and even survives it's owner's intention to kill it.

[@H270127]

Another excellent video from one of the very best around, thank you so much. So funny because yesterday I finally decided to start learning Python.

[@pshamrock787]

I use both. Now that I've learned about the excel wings, I'll use both a lot more.

[@moekyawthu8861]

I leraned a lot from u. Thanks a lot. Now I use Excel VBA for details process in Excel. Python for other general things.

[@excelrobot]

Actually, you can do the same thing as results = df.loc[df['Geography'] > 60] in VBA in one line of code if you use Ctrl-T to make your range an Excel table named "marks". VBA would be: results = Application.Filter([marks], Evaluate("marks[Geography] > 60")).

[@Excelmacromastery]

Nice - I know there are many ways to filter the worksheet data. Filter and Evaluate functions tend to be slow with a lot of data. But what I was demonstrating here was to filter an array rather than the worksheet data. Arrays are very fast to use in VBA but sadly lacking in functionality.

[@excelrobot]

@@Excelmacromastery Since FILTER is one of the new dynamic array functions, it is blazing fast in Office 365. I just did a test with 200,000 records returning 14,000 records in the filtered set and it was pretty much instant (

[@KaiWeissmann]

@@excelrobot Hey, I just tried your suggestion and it gives me an error2015. I have a table named "Stammdaten" with a column "Provisionsanteil". My code looks like this: Sub NeuerFilter() Dim results As Variant results = Application.Filter(["Stammdaten"], Evaluate("Stammdaten[Provisionsanteil]>3")) End Sub Is there something I did wrong?

[@excelrobot]

@@KaiWeissmann Try [Stammdaten] instead of [“Stammdaten”].

[@gaitanpol]

In fact like many coding langage, there as highly specialized libraries / routines that one need to learn to get things done. I am not sure the syntax is really what makes the difference.

[@Thunderin11]

Very interesting video. But... As a VBA die-hard who has been making a living out of it for almost two decades, I have to shout out loud that VBA is here to stay! Maybe Python has some advantages when it comes to analyzing data but VBA is used for much more than analyzing data. It is used most commonly to automate Excel and other Office software. It was not referenced in the video how easy / useful it is for Python to automate Excel environment objects for instance (e.g. charts, shapes, pivot tables and list objects). This debate "Will Python Kill VBA" reminds me how in Excel forums between 2010 to 2012 people strongly argued that Excel would disappear soon because Google Sheets is potentially a much more superior product to Excel. Well reality proved it otherwise. Today Excel is by far the most superior spreadsheet product without any competition whatsoever in sight.

[@alfredoprime5495]

I agree completely. Data analysis is secondary for what we use Excel at work. Charts, pivot tables, regular tables, userforms, custom functions, events,... the list goes on.

[@MrAbrandao]

I use Excel VBA to automate web pages. But now I am stuck with the dead of Internet Explorer....

[@TheStenius]

We all know it: in most companies, you are considered the (only) „Excel-freak“ in the team if you mention your VBA-skills. Some people even still don‘t know what VBA is. My Boss, Professor/Director of a big science institute, never heard if it. That are the people you have to design your xlsm-files for in many cases. For some of them, it‘s a challenge to make those small adjustments on their Excel to run all of those files. Now we shall ask them to set their systems up to enable Python-code in Excel? Haha, good joke. I would change right away, if MS would implement Python to MS Office. But since that will never happen…

[@NZBruceman]

Thanks. Great summary. My company sells Excel tools that integrate with Oracle EBS, mostly in the US. We have employed VBA now since Excel 97 and there are up to 50,000 lines of code in some of the tools. Never underestimate the reluctance of IT to install stuff on their networks/PCs. Having VBA available without an install has been an incredibly important advantage. We have new C# based software creating an Addin and the install is a new barrier we have to fight to overcome, every single time. VBA will never die. Look what happened to Microsoft when they dropped it in Office 10 for Apple! They were burned.

[@Excelmacromastery]

Thanks for shasring Bruce.

[@sinus2220]

Fantastic video! I'm currently in the process of automating not only excel spreadsheets but also web and file operations at the same time. Granted, you can do all of this with Excel and relevant reference libraries, but it seems Python would be more robust and flexible. Most probably I'll be using both in conjunction :) I hope VBA will remain popular forever as I like this coding language very much. Thank you for putting all of the essential information in such a concise yet very informative clip!

[@Excelmacromastery]

VBA will be around for a long time to come.

[@davecks3042]

Brief and concise is your explanation in a single short video . Thanks

[@simonghislain]

I had 3 moments during which I was like "yeah but then you would need to do this" and then you immediately talk about it. This shows your great mastery on the topic. I completely agree with your conclusions. Thank you for this video !

[@CodingIsFun]

Great video, as always! Totally agree with your points. I personally like to use VBA & Python depending on the use case. When it comes to deploying solutions to co-workers, I usually prefer VBA. The conversion from a Python File to a standalone executable can sometimes be a solution. Yet, in a corporate environment, mailing .exe is often not allowed.

[@Excelmacromastery]

Thanks for sharing your experience.

[@daviddeclercq9998]

Yes but you can put the executable on a shared drive and run it from there

[@PeterGeras]

My company blocks mailing .exe as well, so I get around it by zipping the file, then zipping the zip with a password. If the mailing server can't see the contents then it allows it through.

[@macedoniojr]

@@PeterGeras cool tip!!!

[@laravelisbullschitt3281]

Most end users are not allowed to install software. Only approved software may be loaded onto machines, usually there is a committee that approves the software that gets on the machines....and it can take YYEEAARRSS for anything to get approved....there are some companies I know who still maintain everyone should be using IE and Chrome / Edge is completely banned. These companies are few and far between now but it is usually the case the larger the company, the slower change will be. The only thing that looks poised to kill VBA is the adoption rate of teams based Office 365 thanks to the fludemic.

[@wayneedmondson1065]

Hi Paul. Thanks for the view of Python with EXCEL. I've tinkered with it in a small way, but VBA (and Power Query) can currently handle the things I need to automate. Probably, that is true for many people. But, you never can discount an alternate way of getting work done. So, worth keeping an eye on the options (Python, Office Script, etc.). As always, thanks for your interesting perspectives and insights. Thumbs up!!

[@Excelmacromastery]

You're welcome Wayne. Definitely a lot of options nowadays.

[@duncanmorrison9860]

Great video Please more videos on Python with Excel.

[@changnoiboi]

Excellent, thank you Sir. Just getting into VBA & Python and this has helped guide me to my next learnings

[@1612ganesh]

Really you are awesome. I watched your all videos and learning VBA.

[@thecodfather7109]

Exactly the video I needed

[@Excelmacromastery]

Glad you like it.

[@TheVidit143]

Hello father

[@Unchained74]

Great video. Right now python is my favorite language. I'm still a newbie, but its actually pretty amazing to see the things you can do with it. I'm trying to get to where programming in python is just natural.

[@Excelmacromastery]

Keep going and you'll get there.

[@elicesroman7500]

Thx Great video. The problem with python is that commercial organization refused to install open software because it is not supported. In terms of efforts - rewards I think that python is much more better than VBA Excel. I think with a few hours of coding python will allow you to do much more than VBA Code.

[@shehab976]

I think they know python as snake rather than a programing language😁

[@alanhood9675]

For me it was, " Is it worth learning VBA ,to do something that python can do just as well (or better) ,when I want to learn python anyway". You convinced me, I'm doing it in python!

[@drblackra]

⁸

[@ichbrauchmehrkaffee5785]

Wise choice

[@peterlilley6819]

Great video Paul, I had been evaluating this myself, I had heard, but not qualified that Python was significantly slower than vba at runtime.

[@Excelmacromastery]

I haven't done any benchmark testing yet so I can't say for sure. For the Filter task in the video it does run slow compared to VBA.

[@FernandoRamosOstroswky]

hello from Brazil !!!! Thank you for amazing videos that you posted. It's a hard decision for MS to integrate the phyton to VBA, because they created the typesript, but... It's a question of time, I think...

[@zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz9]

Nice video. I'm a heavy user of excel and I'm not very good at VBA, but i learning it. However, this video has got me thinking about switching to Python. The disadvantage is as you stated, installing the application on my work laptop

[@derpythecate6842]

Not for malware. VBA is still really handy for executing code on unsuspecting victims via macros.

[@edudecnop]

I didn't know Pandas was able to read and write in Excel files, that's good news for me. I tried to include an add-on for python application in Excel in the past (don't recall which one), but it let the program quite slow, so I gave up trying to use them together. I'll rethink about this possibility in future soon. Thanks for the video!

[@NTTCode]

My company puts hard restrictions on any software that is excluded from the acceptable software list which is provided by IT Dep, so that if I (maybe anyone other than me) want to use python instead of VBA then I need to take some approval from IT department (very very hard to get it). Even MS Access is not accepted for my department, and MS Office Suite only contains 4 applications: Excel, Word, Powerpoint, Outlook. So in my opinion, Excel VBA is the best stuff for data manipulation in office environment. I totally agree with Paul.

[@Ashish-2319]

Great explanation sir. Indeed you have cleared many doubts.❣❣

[@shashivishwakarma6302]

Thanks kelly exactly I needed please make more videos thanks a lot

[@coffe4wolf]

Python will never replace VBA. There are too much cases when you cannot install new software (due to IT policy, security rules, etc.) but excel and VBA exist on almost each PC with Windows

[@luckyea7]

согласен!

[@BrianBattles]

True

[@boschmitch]

Python ALONE would not replace VBA perhaps. Its the entire cloud or hybridize cloud would remove the feasibility of running codes on PCs. For medium to large companies, using excel is a decrease in productivity. You get data from server, manipulate it then analyze. Why not do it on the source (server-side)? For small companies, cloud equivalents or even Google Sheet can do without installing anything. Most company can survive without Excel tbh (our do). As a bonus of server-side deployments, you can run these in any OS flavor you want.

[@coffe4wolf]

@@boschmitch I'm agree at the point of using cloud tools, but there are a lot of cases when excel/vba still useful in big companies. We use VBA to automate a lot of processes in SAP which could take a lot of time to do it manually and too expensive to handle it with ABAP-developing.

[@yeoyinghui]

Very good comparison. Will love to learn from you too!

[@Excelmacromastery]

Thanks for watching!

[@SimpleExcelVBA]

I thought than after VBA I will go into the TypeScript direction, but now I should also consider Python.

[@FizzyMcPhysics]

This is exactly what Ive been wondering for a while! Thank you!

[@FizzyMcPhysics]

This was really useful, thanks! I'm one of those people who makes macros in a large organisation. While I'm sure everyone could install Python on their laptops, it's just not practical to get them to do it and maintain it. Also, my code resources and knowledge are so mature now, I'm just too invested to make a change worthwhile. I'd also have to use a mix of Python and VBA to do things like formatting and emails.

[@Excelmacromastery]

Thanks for sharing Benjamin.

[@FizzyMcPhysics]

@@Excelmacromastery After talking to a colleague, I think it should be seriously asked if Alteryx will kill VBA in the near future. I'm seriously afraid of Low/No Code solutions taking the spotlight soon.

[@ymlaos9850]

I have stopped using Excel for 2 years now. Managed to exit gracefully and use python for doing my LET. L=Load (MBs of csv

[@barttitulaerexcelbart9400]

Thanks a lot, really interesting. I would love to see a video where you compare power query with python. I would also like to see some real live cases where Excel reaches its limits and Python can take over..

[@Excelmacromastery]

Great suggestion!

[@justinlee9789]

Time series analysis. For instance how do you make a rolling covariance matrix? Doing it with excel will cause a dimensionality nightmare

[@macedoniojr]

Simple example (not real python fan yet): Python can read 2GB csv file with millions of rows. Excel will load 1mln 48k rows and cut off the rest or throw error....

[@barttitulaerexcelbart9400]

@@macedoniojr with power query in Excel this is not an issue

[@alexaneals8194]

@@macedoniojr In reality if you are doing that type of work in Excel then you are wasting your time. A relational database can handle that data a lot quicker and with more efficient results. You can use Excel as a frontend and have the database do the grunt work.

[@ApteryxRex]

Great video. Thanks so much. What IDE are you using? The active 'help' looks great.

[@Excelmacromastery]

Visual Studio Code.

[@gregorymathy2782]

Both are fine for me it depends on what you need to do. Pandas is a great tool that’s being said excel can be seen also as a ready to go graphical interface. whereas in Python you also need to create it … so my dream would be to get a more dedicated Python integration with excel and MS office that would be so great …

[@edravtv4367]

dream coming true...

[@ahrorkuldashev9603]

Really appreciate your time and effort to create this great educational video.

[@toddbrannon6262]

Excellent video! I work with a team that develops tools in Excel and Access. VBA and SQL are king (and queen, I guess?). There has been some discussion about using Python, but it becomes an issue of support. I am the only one on the team with any Python experience and if I were to leave, they would be forced to backfill with someone who has Python experience. The elephant in the room is that Python does not come preinstalled on Windows machines like it does on Mac machines. This is a huge problem and some of the comments here have already mentioned this. Until that happens, if ever, I think you will see adoption of Python as an alternative to VBA be painfully slow - at least within companies that use VBA like mine does.

[@Excelmacromastery]

Thanks for sharing Todd. You make a very good point.

[@Moh23Moh]

can you make a vba code that open the browser and go to a page reads a captcha fill it in a text box in the web page and press enter and the code should work at a certain time

[@onokeita7977]

This is I really needed information!! Thanks 👍👍👍

[@Excelmacromastery]

Glad it was helpful!

[@Malignvs]

VBA gives you the ability to troubleshoot the running code line by line with F8, breaks points and dragging the resume point at will. This is really powerful, especially when you're dealing with 100's of lines of code in one module.

[@Excelmacromastery]

You can debug Python code.

[@Malignvs]

@@Excelmacromastery Can you do it in a similar way, though? I only wrote some code in IDLE, and didn't see any options to do it.

[@johncheung4905]

@@Malignvs I am a beginner at python too, but had a lot of experience with VBA. VS code can do debugging similar to VBA, ONLY if you add breakpoints to the lines of your code where you want to pause. Then you press F5 to proceed from one breakpoint to another. You can add the variable you want to check by putting it into the WATCH list.

[@MatthewTaylor86]

@@Malignvs Debugging Python with VSCode is pretty similar to doing it in VBA! You can see all the local variables, you get an immediate window, etc, plus lots of nice extras like updated locals being highlighted and seeing the values in the code itself.

[@Malignvs]

​@@johncheung4905 ​ @M Taylor Thanks for the explanations! Still, it looks like you can't go line by line (which helps tremendously) without inserting the break points yourself. However those break points should suffice in most cases. :) I need to familiarize myself with VSCode. :)

[@ChillGuy511]

Not even 2 minutes in and already subbed!

[@ChristianBeringer]

One thing was missed out: Big Data and Machine Learning and connection to database-servers. VBA is quite useless for ML or big data analysis in databases, while Python offers many libraries for machine-learning, computer-vision, simulations and even 3D-data visualisation.

[@sandragrushoff9844]

yes - but ML is big data not real learning. Show an amoeba enough pictures of a cat and it can do the task. ML is interesting but it's not learning or intelligence or with the whole world networked the singularity would have blown us away by now.

[@edrobinson8248]

I had to stop this video half way to break off and tell you how taken aback I am. Enlighteneing and Very well presented. Thanks (VBA author)

[@dh8203]

Python looks great, but VBA comes integrated in Office. Your conclusion does a great job of laying out why many people, including myself, won't be switching to Python any time soon. I create things for other people to use, it can't require them to set up Python and then fail when they move to a new machine, or re-install Office.

[@david_apraiz]

Thanks for this very instructive video!!

[@elegantgrasshopper1060]

Your videos are just wonderful. Thank you so much.

[@Excelmacromastery]

Glad you like them!

[@24Boli]

As usual, fantastic video! I guess that Python won't be able to "kill" VBA in a short term, but eventually is likely to do so

[@excelrobot]

Before VBA was XL4 macros, and they are still supported after being replaced by VBA almost 30 years ago. Even if Python or TypeScript replaces VBA, it will live on for another 30 years from now.

[@sathish1202]

Thank you for your analysis

[@krisvantuerenhout537]

Once Python will be installed on as many machines as Office , it will take over i think. For IT people for sure. For NON-IT people i don't think so (not yet). Recording a macro is so easy for the majority of tasks you want to automate. Far from optimized code , but it gets the job done.

[@SolidSnake59]

I would love to see your video where you teach Python!

[@Excelmacromastery]

I may do more in the future.

[@TheMcHonky]

@@Excelmacromastery That's really another strength of Python. The amount of quality learning material, especially for getting started with Python - Corey Schaefers channel is my favorite. For Excel - well there is this channel :-) which is awesome, but in general there is not that much out the for improving VBA skills.

[@danielcook1271]

@@TheMcHonky this 100℅!! I'd love to master vba but can't find enough decent materials. I've a number of books but they more show you what you can do with vba rather than teaching it. Whereas Crash course python is just an amazing introduction to python

[@johncheung4905]

@@Excelmacromastery Please do. Your explanation is superb.

[@johncheung4905]

@@danielcook1271 I learn by doing. I suggest you try this way too. Think of a problem, real or imaginary, in Excel. Then begin writing code for solving it. Whenever you are stuck, search the internet for the solution. You will spend a lot of time in the searching and testing out which solution works best, but this experience will prove very useful.

[@MahendraTita]

Great video, Thanks for sharing

[@Dabayare]

Shocked to see if VBA is still around. Must b nice working for bigger companies. Never seen it in the small niche companies I been working with over the years

[@tumtum6910]

Yes there are corporations which use VBA and they don't know python...😔

[@wsross3178]

I used to work with vba due to installation restriction. Later on i get to work for excel reporting from unix server with built-in python. I get green light from the IT security to install pandas offline and it really replace a lot of manual spreadsheet process.

[@MrMallesh1]

nice video , lot of doubts initially how to use python in vba. Doubts got cleared. add new videos on python I love your videos nicely explained. thanks

[@kennethstephani692]

Great video!!

[@chanchalraj2592]

Please start teaching us to Python... Thanks P.Kelly

[@omerdurak884]

Your explanations are very useful and comprehensible as in your other videos.

[@Excelmacromastery]

Glad you like them!

[@Freddyhb1]

This is the best video I've seen on KZbin on Py vs VBA

[@Excelmacromastery]

Thanks Fred

[@area_surveyor_k2217]

Great job. Thanks for posting.

[@Excelmacromastery]

Thanks for watching!

[@ImprovisedExpletiveDevice]

Thanks for doing this. Another great vid.

[@Excelmacromastery]

You're welcome.

[@sandragrushoff9844]

Intresting vid - I'm a VBA programmer, among other languages, so i've got most of this pretty quickly. I think the main take away point is Python integration, which I think may get rid of VBA (eventually). Otherwise it's just a library. Not only that I can shell out to exe files i've created in another language, or write to an ini set of instructions then do the same. Ultimately Python (in context of VBA) is little more than another library, and there's a lot of libraries, including access to the windows API where I think a lot of power lieth. I'm interested enough to take this seriously though especially as I think everyone will need Python eventually. Moreover - if VBA is rich Italian, Python and others are barked military instructions in a very accurate manner, a far more limited lingo for arguably greater function. VBA programmers may lament the fact they've learned zillions of commands! I'd also be interested to know about the advanced "big data" applications. VBA can do everything in this video and greater. So i'm guessing that if you import 2 million cells and start zooming over them in Python, then VBA may be a frozen spreadsheet and the other may be a quick but two step process then a populated spreadsheet. Cheers for the vid.

[@ziggle314]

Very timely. I have been thinking about running Python instead of VBA. Thanks!

[@Excelmacromastery]

You're welcome.

[@timdunbar9426]

Hi Paul, I love your videos and web pages. They have been very helpful to my in my VBA programming. I have recently learned Python, pandas, numpy and scipy in order to better understand and perform machine learning. That is part of where Python really shines, but Excel VBA has a great advantage in that it is so easy to make a GUI with it. My goal is to deploy an Excel VBA GUI that runs Python machine learning scripts, but I cannot install Python on the machines that I wish to deploy the Excel VBA GUI to. Is it possible to write a Python script and freeze it into an executable and have Excel VBA call it like one could call a function written in Excel VBA?

[@Excelmacromastery]

Thanks Tim. Have you tried using Shell from VBA? I haven't done this myself so I don't know if it will suit what you are trying to do.

[@karchunchong7104]

Thanks for bringing this possibility to my attention. I always like to learn python but don’t have the reason to do so. Now, that has changed.

[@Excelmacromastery]

Happy to help!

[@stevennye2441]

Your videos are always well done and thought provoking. I having been looking at R and Python and the comparisons of which to use. It seems as though Python is the solution for the less mathematically inclined and gives a broader array of possibilities than R. R seems to be more succinct for data visualization, which is much of what I do. R has been around longer and seems to be the preference for post graduate level scientist, whereas I saw some videos of high schools teaching Python. My guess is if you are under 30, python is a better long term investment. On the other hand if you a post graduate level scientist R first, with Python secondary may be the right route. I am early on in my expansion from VBA, but it seems as though VBA fills a substantial hole and if I had one tool I would stick with VBA as Microsoft will figure out how to incorporate Python or copy it. Since I need to broadly share work and VBA seems mostly about making Excel users more productive it is the foundation for my work.

[@Excelmacromastery]

Thanks for sharing Steven. I haven't used R so it was interesting to read your thoughts on R vs Python.

[@g07denslicer]

4:26 wait a minute, you just have to supply the sheet to it? You don’t have to specify a region? What if there’s an unrelated table off on the right of this one? When you tell python to print the 3rd line, will it print the results of the grades table, a bunch of blank spaces, and print the same line of the other table?

[@umeshlangade9231]

You are always upto the recent trend.. thanks for sharing valuable knowledge 😊

[@Excelmacromastery]

You're welcome.

[@cuejorge2003]

I totally agree with you. VBA is part of Excel and those of us who have used it for many years, as you said, we already have written codes that will not work if VBA is eliminated

[@milesdedrick4632]

Well that's actually part of development. As languages depreciate in value and newer ones start to replace them it warrants a rewrite/recode

[@trud811]

Interesting video. But the for the analysis the current Microsoft solution is PowerBI, and the client - PowerBI desktop. For the Worksheet interaction, the main VBA power is the ability to record the macro(that is missing in Python)

[@Otavio987]

Great video! Thank you!

[@Excelmacromastery]

Glad you liked it!

[@arav8431]

Great explanation, please upload python with excel manipulation more videos 👍👍

[@andy.1331]

To use VBA with Excel all you need is just Excel: no additional IDE (+1), no additional components (+1) - totally +2. Using Python for Excel: additional IDE & components - totally -2. This is very important in case you deploy your project to any customer (inside your company or outside it) - no additional prerequisites and maintenance fees. I don't see any reason to replace one scripting language with 2 plusses with another one with 2 minuses. Actually, higher performance of Python with Excel could give it a huge plus. But author don't take it in a count, because, highly likely, there is no such a difference in their execution performance. So, Python or VBA - is just a matter of a personal preferences (except if your boss is a fan of Python :-)).

[@goombakiwi]

I've written VBA for some time. My experience shows that some companies are already apprehensive about allowing employees to use the available VBA. I had one employer disable access to macros, until they realized our ADI's were dependent on them. Staff are generally not hired for programming skills and the push to construct workbooks for basic excel users will continue to be prevalent. With increased cloud usage and SharePoint; MS appears to be focusing on Typescript(Javascript). The prospect of bringing on an enterprise application for Python; is not promising. The recent ransomware news might further diminish employee access to automation features.

[@Excelmacromastery]

Thanks for sharing. You make some interesting points. TypeScript has still a long way to go to compete with VBA and it's not clear if that is Microsoft's aim.

[@timbrockley]

great vid - good info - well explained

[@shoryaarora1464]

Thank for making this video you cleard my doubts towards VBA and python

[@Excelmacromastery]

You're welcome.

[@iljunjang]

Thank you for the great video, always great content. 2 questions: 1) isn’t VBA much faster to run than Python for Excel programs? 2) Also, doesn’t VBA give us much wider library of Excel objects (such as conditional formatting), at least so far? I build enterprise VBA apps and I’ve felt that coding in Python (and JavaScript also) is inferior for speed and control, though I could be wrong. Wud appreciate your opinion.

[@ichbrauchmehrkaffee5785]

Those Excel Objects you're talking about have nothing to do with VBA but with the Excel API-Object. The thing is, VBA is fully integrated in Excel with its own editor that can access the API-Object and thus the Excel-library, whereas in python, you need to connect to it from the Outside. But that would (hopefully) change, if MS were to implement Python in their Office products. But I think even more important would be an Update to the VBE-Editor...that thing is just a PAIN in the nuts to work with..

[@manndipp]

This was immensely helpful in clarifying how to use python in excel

[@danielcook1271]

I love VBA use it daily for my job and at home. Self taught but I'm still at a beginner \intermediate level and I've reached the point where I can use vba to do all I need I just don't think my code is particularly efficient. I find remembering the syntax tricky and still Google the simplest things. I'm struggling to find resources to help me make my vba code better. Just in the last few weeks I picked up a couple of books on python and started learning it. I've already learnt so much and find it easier \ more intuitive than VBA. Also the IDEs are very helpful as you mentioned in your video. I think I'll probably continue to use both languages. There's just something kinda fun about VBA. Everyone's learning python and I think it'll be useful to keep up vba if only to mAintain macros used at work... Brilliant video btw, it's a question I've been thinking about a lot recently but isn't office scripts going to be the thing that replaces VBA??

[@Excelmacromastery]

Thanks for the feedback Daniel. Coding in Python is definitely more convenient once you get up and running. Office Scripts isn't confirmed as a replacement for VBA.

[@rrrprogram8667]

Absolutely great video.... You are the master in your area ....there is no 2nd to you

[@arunkumarnair001]

Man that was a killer video

[@anishpillai]

My workplace uses excel extensively. And we had developed so many VBA applications over 5-6 years. Once we switched to python, an entire new world was unlocked. We have used async, pandas, django, openpyxl, sqlalchemy, pysimplegui and so many other libraries in python which makes our developers life so much easier. Yes VBA definitely has its benefits and there are some shortcomings in python, but the benefits of python massively outweigh the shortcomings, atleast for my workplace. Also most of the comments mention about installing python for end-user, but we have never done that. We use pyinstaller to generate executable codes that needs no installation for end-user. And it runs on any pc just as it does on my computer, without having to install anything for others.

[@Excelmacromastery]

Thanks for sharing Anish. Great to hear your experience of using Python.

[@anishpillai]

@@Excelmacromastery thank you for the great video

[@FlowerEconomics]

Thank you for the excellent and pertinent information. Perhaps VBA can still be used kind of like pseudocode, before you write a Python script.

[@BrianGallagher]

I started using python because the tables of data I was working on were 2.5 - 3 million rows. That's a massive benefit python has over excel. I found the learning curve to be far easier than VBA - python is much more intuitive. For installation purposes, the Anaconda environment is an easy starting point for new python users. Numpy handles calculations on large arrays effortlessly, so enriching data is simple. I still use excel, but I now always do the heavy lifting with python.

[@evgeniy19]

You can use Power Query and Power Pivot to work with millions of rows effortless. They're a bit harder to master, but already built in Excel, which has several benefits.

[@ionblaster7432]

Would love a video series teaching python

[@kjinnah]

Great Video, thank you. Python's universality is definitely growing into many areas, including IOT hardware, etc. Data manipulation is certainly part of using excel. However, In developing Excel apps I find VBA code has developed closely with the nature of excel, like formatting, cells, ranges, tables and indeed whole sheets, for example creating & printing invoices, orders, etc, or printing well formatted reports etc. Also the use of VBA forms to input data, and show results. In addition VBA is closely tied to excel functionality, for example VBA code to run upon 'double click' on a cell, or range by VBA code in a module or on within a sheet etc. Also VBA code can be written by 'recording' actions and the just modifying the code to clean it, or just as a way to learn VBA on the fly as it were, especially if using excel built in capabilities such as pivot tables, data visualization tools or indeed Power BI. I just mention some issues for considerations in a wider question of Python Vs. VBA for new users who may be weighing a way forward.

[@Excelmacromastery]

Thanks for sharing. Some interesting points.

[@jcaskey06]

I agree. It is just so darn easy to create a quick macro, then spend a little bit of time to clean it up to remove the excess junk. It creates a template as a starting place. Very useful for somebody that doesn’t do it all the time and doesn’t have the commands memorized.

[@mzucs]

In a spreadsheet scenario Python can be simpler to learn algorithm and deal with Big Datas, but VBA it is not as bad as people say, It is just need a good update. By the way, in an office environment if you aim for automations and optimizations, mainly for daily tasks and for other people to use, then go VBA. It is way easier to create a simple, useful and visual application and send to other people.

[@Excelmacromastery]

That's for sharing your experience Matteus.

[@ichbrauchmehrkaffee5785]

VBA isn't easier, it's just allready integrated, whereas in python, you currently have to connect to Excel from the outside (and you don't get autocompletion because of that)

[@tjchance5111]

Very interesting, I was wondering if I should use Python or VBA, now I have a better idea. Thank you Paul!

[@Excelmacromastery]

You are welcome!

[@mostafatawfeik534]

thanks for the amazing video

[@egyptianplanner]

Splendid video Splendid effort to explain

[@Mandelbrot567]

Excellent information, how about a comparison of python vs typescript for excel?

[@Excelmacromastery]

It's a good idea. I'll keep it in mind.

[@ricos1497]

Great video. Think you managed to highlight all the key points! For me, it will not kill VBA as Microsoft will not allow it to. It looks increasingly like they are going to push Typescript as the VBA successor and it's integration into Excel online backs that up (can Python be used in browser Excel? Does anyone care?!!). With the advent of Power Query and Power Pivot (and now LET and LAMBDA), I have to say that my requirement for VBA is becoming less and less (focusing on the cosmetics rather than real requirements) and the types of things I'm retaining in VBA are things that would be easily replaced in Office Scripts or similar (refreshing workbook when opened, selecting particular cells etc). I'll certainly take another look at Python in the coming weeks and months as I'm torn between it and Typescript. I think I'd go down the route of creating a stand alone Python application though, rather than using Excel as the interface (with the Filter button and run coding via VBA). Although, I have to admit, that I do like the fact that in Typescript you get access to the "Panes" in Excel so that your application integrates as part of Excel. I'm guessing that can't really be replicated in Python in the same way.

[@TheMcHonky]

I think Microsoft knows the popularity of Python, and they have a department the exclusively works with Python, and how to best integrate it the Microsoft ecosystem. But I think one of the problems replacing VBA with Python is that the Python ecosystem is constantly evolving, and I assume that finding a way to support all the userpackages is kind of difficult.