Description

When Excel isnt enough, its time to learn Python.

If youre comfortable in Excel, but youve hit a wallslow files, broken formulas, hours spent on repetitive tasksthis book offers a way forward. It shows you how to take the work you already do in spreadsheets and make it faster, smarter, and more powerful with Python.

Youll start by setting up your environment and getting comfortable with Python through short, Excel-inspired exercises. From there, youll gradually move into writing scripts that automate manual work, structure your data, and generate consistent resultsno prior programming knowledge required.

Youll use your preexisting Excel skills to learn how to:

Translate spreadsheet logic into Python code

Use pandas to clean, reshape, and filter data

Automate reports youd normally build by hand

Read and write Excel files directly from Python

Connect to databases and APIs

Create professional visualizations with Plotly and Dash

Organize code into sharable modules and write simple tests

Throughout the book, youll find practical examples that show why and how to move your work out of spreadsheets and into scripts, and how to resolve issues along the way.

Author Tracy Stephens has extensive practical experience with both Excel and Python. Her approach is grounded in real workflows, and she introduces each concept through tasks youve likely handled in Excel.

This book wont ask you to replace everything you do in spreadsheets, but it will help you use Python to work faster, more reliably, and with greater flexibility than you ever could with Excel.

Author: Tracy Stephens
Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: No Starch Press
Published: 09/23/2025
Pages: 344
ISBN: 9781718503984
Language: English