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Microsoft announces Python formulas in Excel... which have to get sent to the cloud (techcommunity.microsoft.com)

submitted 1 year ago by Aatube@kbin.social to c/tech@kbin.social

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Since its inception, Microsoft Excel has changed how people organize, analyze, and visualize their data, providing a basis for decision-making for the flying billionaires heads up in the clouds who don't give a fuck for life off~~the~~line

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[–] nottheengineer@feddit.de 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Python is slow enough as is, who the fuck thought adding a web request to that was a good idea‽

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Python is fast enough, and generally quite a bit faster than complex spreadsheet formulas. I've seen formulas that can take minutes that Python could do in seconds. A web request isn't going to matter that much.

[–] Aatube@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Web requests are \very\ slow compared to CPU computations, not to mention that time has to be doubled since it's a two-way route.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Sure, but it happens once. So as long as Python saves you more than the half second or so round trip, it'll be preferable.

I'd prefer it to be embedded, but I can absolutely see it being useful even if it's cloud-only.

[–] Aatube@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Wouldn't it need to send to the cloud and back every time you change one of the cells the script is depending on?

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yup, most likely. I'm saying the total calculation w/ Excel formulas is often greater than that round trip + computation time w/ Python. Excel formulas are pretty slow.

[–] Aatube@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I haven't seen how they were slower than just python.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago

Think huge formulas. I've seen formulas take minutes in Excel, but seconds when implemented better in a script. If you haven't worked with massive formulas, you're not the target market here.

Another application is accessing external APIs that don't have internal support. If you're accessing an external API, you're already paying a network overhead cost, so adding another isn't going to matter much.