How to code in Excel and Tableau using python?

Question

I am trying use python coding to analyse data in excel and Tableau. I do not know how or where to start with.

Answer 1

It seems that Excel only supports VBA so you cannot use python there.
However, you can export .xls to .csv and apply the Pandas library, then open your result in Excel and turn it into .xls again.

Answer 2

tep 1: Use Python with Excel

You can use the pandas library to read and analyze Excel data.

Install libraries:

pip install pandas openpyxl

Example code:

import pandas as pd

# Load Excel file
df = pd.read_excel("data.xlsx")

# Basic analysis
print(df.head()) # first 5 rows
print(df.describe()) # summary stats

You can clean, filter, and analyze data directly in Python, then save it back to Excel using df.to_excel("output.xlsx").

Step 2: Use Python with Tableau

Tableau doesn’t run Python directly but connects to it using TabPy (Tableau Python Server).

Install TabPy:

pip install tabpy
tabpy

(This starts a local Python server.)

In Tableau:

Go to Help → Settings and Performance → Manage External Service Connection

Connect Tableau to TabPy (default: localhost:9004).

Now, in Tableau calculated fields, you can use Python code like:

SCRIPT_REAL("return _arg1 + _arg2", SUM([Sales]), SUM([Profit]))